Most of the glyphs are written with one or two simple pen strokes. The text consists of over 170,000 discrete glyphs, usually separated from each other by narrow gaps. However, it is possible to write somewhat fluently in other codes or private shorthands, or when copying prepared text from a wax tablet. The ductus flows smoothly, giving the impression that the symbols were not enciphered, for if that were so the individual characters would have had to be calculated before being written. Longer sections are broken into paragraphs, sometimes with star- or flower-like "bullets" in the left margin. The text was clearly written from left to right, with a slightly ragged right margin. There is strong evidence that many of the book's bifolios were reordered at various points in its history, and that the original page order may well have been quite different from what we see today. A quill pen was used for the text and figure outlines, and colored paint was applied (somewhat crudely) to the figures, possibly at a later date. From the various numbering gaps, it seems likely that the manuscript originally had at least 272 pages: the remaining pages were already missing when Voynich acquired it in 1912. ![]() The manuscript's quires are numbered from 1 to 20, its folios (some with unusual fold-out shapes) are numbered from 1 to 116, yielding a total (depending on how you choose to count them) of 240 vellum pages. The first facsimile edition was published in 2005. ![]() Currently the Voynich manuscript is owned by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, and is formally referred to as "Beinecke MS 408". The book is named after the Polish-Lithuanian-American book dealer Wilfrid M. However, these results have yet to be published properly, leaving room for continued speculation. In addition, the McCrone Research Institute in Chicago found that much of the ink was added not long afterwards, confirming that the manuscript is indeed an authentic medieval document. In 2009, University of Arizona researchers performed C14 dating on the manuscript's vellum, which they assert (with 95% confidence) was made between 14. The mystery surrounding it has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript a subject of both fanciful theories and novels: numerous possible authors have been suggested for it. Yet it has defied all decipherment attempts, becoming a historical cryptology cause célèbre. Generally presumed to be some kind of ciphertext, the Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. The author, script, and language remain unknown: for these reasons it has been described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript". ![]() The Voynich manuscript is a handwritten book thought to have been written in the 15th or 16th century and comprising about 240 vellum pages, most with illustrations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |