The Voynich Manuscript is a mysterious 15th century vellum book full of bizarre drawings, mostly of plants and women, and text written in an unknown language or code. Explanations include a coded book of health advice for wealthy women, a work of religious mania, fantasy or heresy, or simply a hoax. — Read the rest

Last week's solution to the ages-old mystery of the Voynich Manuscript was offered in the Times Literary Supplement by TV history researcher Nicholas Gibbs, who claimed that his unique background in several fields meant that he could pierce the mystery where so many others had failed.

Nicholas Gibbs, a history researcher, says that he has decoded the Voynich Manuscript, a legendarily mysterious 15th century text whose curious illustrations and script have baffled cryptographers, historians, and amateur sleuths for decades.

An "authorized" reproduction of the legendary Voynich Manuscript is finally available in print form, published by Yale University from new photographs taken for the purpose. Yale's Beinecke Library owns the document and has taken its sweet time putting out a decent art book. — Read the rest

In 1912, bookseller Wilfrid Voynich discovered an illustrated manuscript that was written in a mysterious alphabet that had never been seen before. The text bears the hallmarks of natural language, but no one has ever been able to determine its meaning. — Read the rest

This high quality paperback reproduction of the Voynich Manuscript is lovely. You, and your guests, can take a stab at decoding this mystery!

Purchased 1912 by book dealer Wilfred Voynich, this 15th century manuscript remains a mystery today. The meaning of this manuscript has puzzled codebreakers for the last century. — Read the rest

The 600-year-old, strangely-illustrated Voynich Manuscript (which resides at Yale University) has been called the most mysterious manuscript in the world. Not a single word of the secret language has been decoded, at least not until now. Stephen Bax of the University of Bedfordshire says he has decoded ten words from the Voynich Manuscript. — Read the rest

On her wonderful page of "Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers" the game developer and recreational code-cracker Elonka Dunin describes the Voynich Manuscript, which is written in an as-yet uncrackable cipher:

At least 600 years old, this is a 232-page illuminated manuscript entirely written in a secret script.

Avi sez, "Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has put complete high resolution scans of the enigmatic, undeciphered Voynich Manuscript online."

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.

Scientists have carbon-dated the Voynich manuscript, a puzzling and beautiful document covered in botanical and scientific drawings. Named for the Polish-American bookseller who acquired it in 1912, its undeciphered text and purported 15th-16th century origins have long been a matter of controversy. — Read the rest

Enjoy these high-res scans of the mysterious 16th-Century parchment book known as the Voynich Manuscript (which is likely to be a 500-year-old hoax). Link

Reader comment:

Dan says:

While there may be other reasons to suspect the Voynich Manuscript as
a hoax, Dr.

The 500-year-old Voynich Manuscript, kept at Yale University, is a beautiful and mysterious parchment book filled with arcane symbols and coded handwriting. Ever since it was discovered, researchers have been trying — and failing — to decipher the text.

Some people suspect the Voynich Manuscript to be the work of a rascal by the name of Edward Kelley, who may have written it in the 16th century to make money. — Read the rest

Could this be a project for distributed computing?

The Voynich manuscript is by far the most mysterious of all texts. It is seven by ten inches in size, and about 200 pages long. It is made of soft, light-brown vellum. It is written in a flowing cursive script in alphabet that has never been seen elsewhere.

We here at Boing Boing have long been fans of the Codex Seraphinianus, a mysterious surrealist cypher manuscript that first appeared in print in the early 1980s. We first covered it in The Happy Mutant Handbook and have been marveling at it ever since. — Read the rest

A letter written in a foreign language, a mysterious code, or perhaps by a very busy doctor, is confounding a woman in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. Can you decipher Scranton's very own Voynich manuscript?

"40 years ago, I got it from my mother-in-law, and she got it from her mother.

Dangerous Minds interviews Rizzoli publishing house chief Charles Miers about a forthcoming new edition of "Codex Seraphinianus" and about Serafini himself. Mr. Miers is a long-term fan of the Codex and of Serafini's work. So are we.