The breakers of the Japanese “Purple” code, physicists with modern computers or expert historians – they all tried their luck, but so far nobody could decipher the contents of this book. Since its discovery 100 years ago, the Voynich Manuscript has equally captivated both scientists and occultists. No wonder that this manuscript even plays a role in Dan Brown’s new mystery bestseller “The Lost Symbol”. It is the most mysterious manuscript in the world: a book written by an unknown author, illustrated with drawings that are as bizarre as they are enigmatic – and in a language that could not be deciphered by the best cryptographers in the world. “The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World: Did Roger Bacon Write It and Has the Key Been Found?”, Harper’s Monthly Magazine 143, pp.186–197.The Most Mysterious Manuscript In The World. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World. Kraus, who had purchased it from the estate of Ethel Voynich, Wilfrid Voynich’s widow. In 1969, the codex was given to the Beinecke Library by H. Voynich purchased the manuscript from the Jesuit College at Frascati near Rome. 1622), an exchange based on the inscription visible only with ultraviolet light on folio 1r which reads: “Jacobi de Tepenecz.” Johannes Marcus Marci of Cronland presented the book to Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) in 1666. In addition, Dee stated that he had 630 ducats in October 1586, and his son noted that Dee, while in Bohemia, owned “a booke…containing nothing butt Hieroglyphicks, which booke his father bestowed much time upon: but I could not heare that hee could make it out.” Emperor Rudolph seems to have given the manuscript to Jacobus Horcicky de Tepenecz (d. Dee apparently owned the manuscript along with a number of other Roger Bacon manuscripts. It is very likely that Emperor Rudolph acquired the manuscript from the English astrologer John Dee (1527-1608). The codex belonged to Emperor Rudolph II of Germany (Holy Roman Emperor, 1576-1612), who purchased it for 600 gold ducats and believed that it was the work of Roger Bacon. Like its contents, the history of ownership of the Voynich manuscript is contested and filled with some gaps. Read a detailed chemical analysis of the Voynich Manuscript (8 p., pdf) History of the Collection Described as a magical or scientific text, nearly every page contains botanical, figurative, and scientific drawings of a provincial but lively character, drawn in ink with vibrant washes in various shades of green, brown, yellow, blue, and red.īased on the subject matter of the drawings, the contents of the manuscript fall into six sections: 1) botanicals containing drawings of 113 unidentified plant species 2) astronomical and astrological drawings including astral charts with radiating circles, suns and moons, Zodiac symbols such as fish (Pisces), a bull (Taurus), and an archer (Sagittarius), nude females emerging from pipes or chimneys, and courtly figures 3) a biological section containing a myriad of drawings of miniature female nudes, most with swelled abdomens, immersed or wading in fluids and oddly interacting with interconnecting tubes and capsules 4) an elaborate array of nine cosmological medallions, many drawn across several folded folios and depicting possible geographical forms 5) pharmaceutical drawings of over 100 different species of medicinal herbs and roots portrayed with jars or vessels in red, blue, or green, and 6) continuous pages of text, possibly recipes, with star-like flowers marking each entry in the margins.įor a complete physical description and foliation, including missing leaves, see the Voynich catalog record. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912-are still being debated as vigorously as its puzzling drawings and undeciphered text. Written in Central Europe at the end of the 15th or during the 16th century, the origin, language, and date of the Voynich Manuscript-named after the Polish-American antiquarian bookseller, Wilfrid M.
0 kommentar(er)
