It is an illustrated book with 204 pages and full of incomprehensible content. Despite the name, the author is still unknown. “Voynich” is the last name of the bookseller Wilfrid Michael Voynich, who, in 1912, acquired the manuscript in the interior of Italy. After his death, the item ended up at Yale University, USA, where it is studied until today. By calculations made with carbon 14 tests, it is believed that the book was written about 600 years ago. However, to this day, not a single word of it has been revealed, as the characters in the text do not match any natural language pattern. Despite this, scholars believe that the book is a compilation of medicinal knowledge that, because it could be confused with witchcraft by the Holy Inquisition, had to be codified. The high quality of the mineral pigments and parchment also reinforces the thesis that the manuscript could hold precious knowledge.
Before it was purchased by Voynich, speculators believe the book passed through several different owners. One theory was that the book was a fraud by the English magician and astrologer Edward Kelley to deceive King Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire, who suffered from depression and was enthusiastic about medicinal research. Other currents believed that the drawings would have been made by Leonardo da Vinci in his childhood. With carbon 14 dating, both hypotheses were discarded, as they suggested scenarios at different times than the book’s origin.
In September 2017, historian Nicholas Gibbs published an article claiming to have cracked the manuscript: it was supposed to be a women’s health guide and the strange words were abbreviations. However, medievalists pointed out errors and refuted the “solution”, keeping the mystery.
What have inside
Even with coded text, the drawings help divide the book into sections.
Part 1 – Botany
– (Yale University Library/Reproduction)
The first part of the book features drawings of 113 different plants – none corresponding to a real species. The details, often out of proportion, sometimes vaguely resemble parts of human anatomy. The author possibly describes in this block the uses of these plants and the places where they could be found
Part 2 – Astronomical
– (Yale University Library/Reproduction)
With 25 diagrams that seem to refer to stars and signs, the pages of this chapter have zodiac designs represented in great detail. In the Middle Ages, herbal treatment involved some astrological understanding, so researchers suspect that the botany and astronomy chapters may be interrelated in some way.
Part 3 – Biological
– (Yale University Library/Reproduction)
It is considered the most mysterious part of the book. Here the author exclusively draws female figures, almost always immersed up to their knees in strange interlocking vessels containing a dark fluid or clear water. While a strand of researchers believe that these are drawings about alchemy, another imagines that the chapter brings recipes for healing baths.
Part 4 – Pharmacological
– (Yale University Library/Reproduction)
In the last illustrated chapter, the book brings images of ampoules and flasks with shapes similar to those of old pharmacy containers. In this section there are also drawings of plants and roots, possibly medicinal herbs. Other illustrations seem to support the idea that this is a chapter dedicated to pharmacology, with drug prescriptions.
Part 5 – Table of Contents
– (Yale University Library/Reproduction)
The last section of the Voynich Manuscript begins on page 103 and continues to the end with no further images except little stars or small flowers at the end of a few paragraphs. These markings lead us to believe that this is some kind of index that refers readers to the other chapters of the manuscript.
Where did it come from?
– (Yale University Library/Reproduction)
A drawing in the book features a realistic representation of a city with its walls decorated with dovetail-shaped towers. This has led to theories about the item’s place of origin. Only in northern Italy could towers with this type of decoration have been found within the date stipulated by carbon 14 measurements.
Reader Question – Lais Dias, Capim Grosso, BA
SOURCES Thesis What We Know About the Voynich Manuscriptby Sravana Reddy and Kevin Knight, documentary The Voynich Manuscript,(BBC), magazine Scientific American and websites voynich.nu and voynichportal.com