Today
we're talking about the Voynich manuscript.
Called the
most mysterious book in the world by some, a complete hoax by others
and a compelling mystery by practically everyone else.
The book
has been carbon dated to the early 15th century, probably
between 1404 and 1438, so we know the vellum is real. It then went
from owner to owner but there are very few confirmed owners on
record, but every famous astronomer, alchemist and soothsayer is
named as a “possible owner” even though there's no proof.
What we
know however is that it ended up in the hands of Wilfrid Voynich, a
Polish revolutionary, antiquarian and bibliophile in 1912. Since no
one knows who wrote the book, it's named after him.
So, what's
the book like, you ask? It's written in an unknown language, with
many illustrations. Some pages are walls of text, others written in
circles. Some pages are fold-outs, and all of it is a mystery.
Code
crackers ranging from eager amateurs to professional military
cryptographers have tried their best and come up empty. This of
course fuels the hoax theory. After all, how can it be that no one
can crack it, right?
Well there
has been a new development. A team from the University of Alberta
have put an AI to work on it, and it has suggestions. Not proof, keep
that in mind here, but ideas and new avenue of approach.
It
seems, according to the AI, that the text is Hebrew, but that every
word is an alphagram. An alphagram is when you take all the letters
in a word and arrange them alphabetically, so alphabetical becomes
aaabcehillpt.
The
team needs help from people who are good at Hebrew, but so far no one
want to help. If you're good at it, maybe contact the university?
Anyway,
according to the AI, the first words in the Voynich manuscript are:
"She
made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and
people,"
A
bit of a mess, sure, but at least it's something. If you want to know
more, here are some helpful links:
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript
the
Science Alert article about the AI:
A
PDF of twenty pages from the manuscript:
That's
that. Happy reading, and until next time, have a great week!
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