A fold-out page from the Voynich manuscript - written, probably in the 15th century, in a cipher that no-one has yet decoded. Nor do the plants match known species. It's named after the book dealer who acquired it in 1912. It consists of six "sections" (including astronomy and recipes), and the overall impression is that it was meant to serve in medieval or early modern medicine. The puzzling details of illustrations have fueled many theories about the book's origins, the contents of its text, and the purpose for which it was intended.
The bizarre features of the manuscript text (such as doubled and tripled words in the text), the suspicious contents of its illustrations, and a lack of historical reference support the idea that the manuscript is a hoax. No-one has been able to construct any meaning from it - so, did it contain any meaning in the first place?
Its authorship has been subject to as many theories as has the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, and further theories about the manuscript's language abound. Perhaps it's an example of "outsider art" from another era?
A facsimile edition, albeit with heavy image cropping, was published in 2005. You can see the separate pages online here.
1 comment:
Marvelous!! Thanks for the link. Some of the plant illustrations look like ferns or mosses. If it is a hoax then it's by somebody with a lot of knowledge and an eye for observation.
Post a Comment