The Voynich Manuscript is a handwritten book, carbon-dated to the early 15th century (around the 1400s). It’s written in an unknown language that many call “Voynichese”. Many of the pages contain simple drawings of a variety of subjects. The entire codex currently has a total of 240 pages, however there are some that appear to be missing. Using the page numbering written inside of the book, and investigating the gaps between pages, it’s suspected that the whole manuscript once had around 272 pages in total.

A Brief Description

The manuscript doesn’t have an official name, only commonly referred to as “The Voynich Manuscript” after a man named “Wilfrid Voynich”. Voynich purchased the book some time in 1912. Later, in 1969, the manuscript made its way in Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. A few years ago, back in 2020, Yale University published the entire  manuscript online for their digital library.

After many years of investigation and study, the language remains undeciphered. Many professionals and codebreakers attempted to decipher it during both world wars, but were unsuccessful.

The Investigation

As stated before, the pages had been carbon-dated to the early 1400s, sometime around 1404 to 1438. The manuscript had also been protein tested, showing results that the pages were made of calfskin, composed of at least 14 entire calf skins. Goat skin composes the binding and covers.

Polarized light microscopy had revealed that the ink the manuscript had used consisted of iron gall ink written with a quill pen. The ink was used for both the writing and the outlines of the drawings. Extra analysis provided evidence that the ink had traces of many different minerals, such as carbon, iron, sulfur, potassium, calcium, copper, and zinc.

Paint had covered the pages to color in the ink outlined drawings. All the colors have been analyzed. The blue paint was made of ground azurite with small amounts of copper oxide cuprite. The white paint consisted of calcium carbonate and egg-white. The green paint had copper-chlorine and atacamite. Finally, the red paint was made of red ochre, with traces of hematite and iron sulfide.

The text had many unknown characters, with some only showing once or twice. It reads from left to right, and there is no punctuation. Most of it is written in a single column with paragraph divisions and a jagged right margin. Over 170,000 characters are counted within the manuscript.

The illustrations and text both have characteristics of a European origin. For further evidence, the materials in the paint that was listed above consisted of minerals usually obtained from Europe in the suspected timeframe the book was written.

The History

Georg Baresch is one owner of the manuscript, being its first confirmed owner. Georg was a Prague alchemist from the 17th century. While the book was being stored in Georg’s library, a scholar named Athanasius Kircher had published an Egyptian dictionary. Georg sent a sample of the book to Athanasius, asking him to send him a translation. As the manuscript is not written in egyptian, the book was never translated. Athanasius acquired an interest in the manuscript because of this.

Athanasius asked Georg to send him the entire manuscript, but Georg refused. After Georg’s death, the book was given to his friend, Jan Marek Marci, who also happened to be friends with Athanasius. The manuscript was swiftly given to Athanasius.

The manuscript stumped Athanasius, so it was stored in the Collegio Romano library for two hundred years. The manuscript remained in this library until Victor Emmanuel II of Italy annexed the Papal States. Victor’s new government wanted to seize church properties, which included the library the manuscript was stored in. The book eventually made its way to a private library owned by the Society of Jesus.

Sometime in 1903, the Society ran low on money. The Vatican Library offered to purchase some books from them, which they succeeded in. 30 different books were shipped to the Vatican library. One of these books was the Voynich Manuscript itself. Wilfrid Voynich, the man listed before whom the manuscript was named after, acquired these books, and noticed the manuscript. He didn’t recognize the language, so for the next several years he urged scholars to attempt to decipher the manuscript.

Shortly after Wilfrid’s death, the manuscript was passed down to his wife, Ethel Voynich. Later, when Ethel died, it was passed to her friend Anne Nill. Sometime after, Anne sold the book to Hans Kraus, an antique book dealer. Being unsuccessful in finding an interesting customer, Hans donated the manuscript to Yale University, where it sits to this day still unsolved.