The mystery of the world’s oldest manuscript that no one could decipher in 110 years

Voynich codeAlso Known as MS408Approximately 234 pages, drawn with plants, women and constellations, but the real magic lies in the text and its mysterious meaning.

This code, which appears to consist of a hybrid of Elvish and Arabic, This is the only known sample of this secretary system... British intelligence, the FBI, and countless researchers have spent more than 100 years trying to decipher it. But so far no one has succeeded.

For puzzle fans, the appeal of uncracked chords can be extraordinary. Some have devoted their lives to resolving famous cases, Like that of the Beale code, that of Dorabella, or that of Tamám Shud’s murder...

Nevertheless, Decoding these codes is not just an opportunity for wealth and personal satisfaction..

Code breaker like a great mathematician Alan Turing Y Elizabeth Smith Friedman Driven to hero status, but no one has resolved One of the most fascinating cases of all: Voynich Manuscript.

Mysterious Voynich Code

Due to the many mysteries surrounding its content, it was the subject of television shows, books, music, and even video games.

After several years of work, a German Egyptologist Reiner Hanning at the Roemer and Pelizeus Museum in HildesheimBelieved that he had decrypted the code to translate the work, and according to him, discovered the language of the manuscript based on Hebrew.

“There have been countless decryption attempts,” Hanning wrote in an article explaining his methodology. “Many languages ​​have been proposed, such as Latin, Czech, or especially Nahuatl (spoken in Aztec), to name a few … The word structure leaves only one possible explanation. The manuscript was not composed of Indo-European languages.“.

From his analysis Hanning concludes that the text must be Semitic And considering the European image of the book’s illustrations, he narrowed down his choices to Arabic, Aramaic, or Hebrew, a language spoken by medieval European scholars.

After identifying the relationship between a particular Voynich character and the Hebrew language, He managed to translate the first few words and then complete the sentence.

“”The actual translation of the Voynich book will take years of work“Even if the analysis is done by a Hebrew expert who is familiar with medieval Hebrew and the terminology of plant and medical texts,” Hanning wrote.

“”The character of the sentence, the familiar pronunciation, the peculiarities and vocabulary of the time cause many problems. Also for native Hebrew speakers.

Controversy over Voynich Code

Over the years, professional code breakers and scholars from various disciplines have tried to solve the mystery. On that tour, some suspected Hebrew It was the language behind the writing, including the author of a computer algorithm-based study published in 2016.

Experts questioned the methodology used, but did not produce a reliable translation...Others insisted on it The manuscript is forged and the text itself is a hoax.

How about the Voynich code

The 234 vellum page of the manuscript contains illustrations of plants, floating heads, constellations, and fantastic creatures (including dragons).Castle, bathing woman, symbol of astronomy.

Scholars used these illustrations to organize the content of the manuscript into six main sections.: Plants, astronomy, astrology, biology, space, pharmaceuticals, prescriptions.

But if you don’t have the ability to read the text Its true content remains elusive.. Even the name of the author of the manuscript remains a mystery.

The Voynich manuscript came to light in 1912 after Wilfrid Voynich, a rare book dealer in London.I bought the manuscript in Italy.

Formerly belonged to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf IIAnd perhaps John Dee, the infamous court astrologer of Elizabeth I of England.

Since 1969, manuscripts have been kept in the Bineckerea Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University... A conference will be held in Hildesheim next August for scholars to discuss groundbreaking things.

Various interpretations of the Voynich code

British scholars said the manuscript A kind of treatment reference book created by Maria de Castile nunsThe Queen of Aragon, in a lost language known as Protromance.

In a research paper Published in Journals Romance Studies, Gerard Cheshire, University of Bristol Research AssociatesHe claims that this manuscript is a “summary of information on herbal remedies, therapeutic baths, and astrological readings” focusing on women’s physical and mental health, reproduction, and parenting.

Cheshire believes that language and the secretary system were common at the time, rather than being written in code. It is composed and states that the document is the only text written in the surviving protromance.