"Voynich Manuscript"
Maybe, some of you are thinking about the different mysteries here on earth. And most of the time, the answer you’re longing for is nowhere to be seen. Here, in this article, you will encounter one of the most unsolved mysteries. And that is, Voynich Manuscript.
Voynich Manuscript, a 240-page book, written in a language that is completely unknown. Some people say that this manuscript was originally found in the library of Rudolph II and that it was in the possession of Father Athanasius Kircher in 1666. Then suddenly, the manuscript dropped out of sight for centuries, until it was acquired in 1912 by Polish bookseller, Wilfrid M. Voynich.
Inside the famous MS, you can see a lot of colorful drawings of strange diagrams, odd events and plants that do not seem to match any known species, this adds to the difficulty of deciphering the said manuscript. The original writer remains unknown but carbon dating has revealed that its pages were made sometime between 1404 and 1438.
What are the illustrations inside the manuscript?
─ The illustrations are used to divide most of the manuscript into six different sections, since the text itself cannot be read. The following are the sections:
1. Herbal, 112 folios
2. Astronomical, 21 folios
3. Biological, 20 folios
4. Cosmological, 13 folios
5. Pharmaceutical, 34 folios
6. Recipes, 22 folios
Despite the hardship of finding out what the Voynich MS really is, the theories about it continued. Here are some:
1. Pharmacopoeia – it is believed to address topics in medieval or early modern medicine and that this manuscript states different manual instructions for the health and wellbeing.
2. Aliens – states that the manuscript was written by aliens and it is the product of their intelligence. Some say, this manuscript is the way to extraterrestrial life.
3. Immortality – the manuscript holds the key to immortality.
Even though there are different theories about the MS, the difficulty of deciphering it made amateur cryptographers and even professionals, including American and British codebreakers from both World I and World War II to just leave it and let it be.
Many stepped and offered to “unlock” the mystery that lies within the manuscript, but no one succeeded. This resulted to the Voynich Manuscript being donated to Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
