The Voynich Manuscript

Description

A complete illuminated manuscript in high resolution full-page color plates. The Voynich manuscript is a richly illustrated codex hand-written in an undeciphered script. While the manuscript's origins are unknown it has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century and is most likely from Northern Italy or Central Europe. Its illustrations suggest that it is some form of pharmacopoeia or scientific treatise and it is divided by convention into six sections: herbal, astronomical, biological, cosmological, pharmaceutical and recipes. Wide ranging hypotheses on the nature of the script have been put forward - from it being a complex cipher system or unknown natural language to a sophisticated hoax or pure gibberish - and decoding it remains a popular challenge in cryptography. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912. It is currently held by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.