The Voynich manuscript dates back at least to the seventeenth century, though it is possibly much older. Its pages are filled with hand-written text and crudely drawn illustrations. The illustrations depict plants, astrological diagrams, and naked women. These illustrations are strange, but much stranger is the text itself, because the manuscript is written entirely in a mysterious, unknown alphabet that has defied all attempts at translation.
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http://archive.newscientist.com/archive.jsp?id=23174900 Provides a recent serious article about the possible history of the Voynich document. Enjoy.
Posted by Anonymous on Sun Apr 14, 2002 at 05:06 AM
Just thought you'd like to know that the language behind the Voynich manuscript isn't all that mysterious. It's actually early WELSH. The main obstacle to translating it is that most of the words no longer 'exist', i.e. you won't find them in current English-Welsh/Welsh-English dictionaries. The language has changed an awful lot after 800 years. Still, there are enough there to tantalize...
Posted by Visitor on Tue Oct 29, 2002 at 01:37 AM
Hi there I found your website when looking up the Cardiff giant. Stephen King refers to the giant in his latest book From a Buick 8. I stumbled across your entry about the Voynich manuscript. I have been a fan of H.P. Lovecrafts writing for many years so the potential of taking a look at images from the book that inspired the Necronomicon fascinated me.
Posted by Henry on Fri Apr 04, 2003 at 04:32 AM
Another theory on the Voynich manuscript from someone who's convinced it is a hoax: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=0000E3AA-70E1-10CF-AD1983414B7F0000
Posted by Matt on Wed Jun 23, 2004 at 10:31 AM
While it's possible that Lovecraft knew of the Voynich manuscript, his history of how he created the Necronomicon never mentions Voynich. Colin Wilson created the link in several stories; the first one was "Return of the Lloigor".
Posted by jhmcmullen on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 11:56 AM
It certianly isn't written in Welsh, as you can see if you go to samples of the text on the Omniglot site. It doesn't even appear to use any known Latin charater set variant. The language --if any-- and writing system are either a code designed to conceal something, or an outright hoax. IMHO, it is the latter.
Posted by Milton on Fri May 06, 2005 at 09:32 AM
The wife of of Wilfred Voynich was Ethel born in Ireland.On the 1901 census she gives her occupation as " Novelist" perhaps she had the imagination to produce it in collaboration with her husband.
Posted by Paul on Thu Aug 11, 2005 at 05:31 AM
A recent expert and proclaimed genious, Sir Dominicus Flemmiling,made a startling discovery that the voynich manuscript is actually the writings of a monk who liked to experiment with cannabis sativa and other plants and even tried successfull and unsuccessfully to combine through splicing other plants in which would create a 'super' (if you will) plants. The documents actually refer to his creation of these horticultural specimens and also documents his network of suppliers and customers in which his buissness run, in other words the author was a druge dealer and the manuscript is his 'ledger/diary' The reasoning behind the strange language and format as well as the obviously inept ability to create an acceptable quality of images is a direct result to his sampling of his own specimens.specimens CRACKED!
Posted by Simmarilliamirrion in A subway near you on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 06:36 PM
Is it possible that the author simply invented a language for his own amusement (a la Tolkein), and then wrote a book in it?
Posted by cranberry in Maryland on Thu Nov 24, 2005 at 10:21 PM
Dominicus Flemmiling is mentioned ONLY on this page in Google.
Posted by Tom Mazanec in Ohio on Sun Dec 25, 2005 at 11:37 AM
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