Editing Voynich manuscript

{{Short description|15th-century codex in an unknown script}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox manuscript
| name = Voynich manuscript
| location = [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]
<!----------Image---------->| image = Voynich Manuscript (32).jpg
| width = 
| caption = A floral illustration on page 32
<!----------General---------->| Also known as = Beinecke MS408
| Type = [[Codex]]
| Date = Unknown; parchment dated to early 15th century<ref name=ngvideo>{{cite web |url=http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/winners/tvf2011winners/pieces.php?iid=413203&pid=1 |year=2011 |access-date=8 June 2016 |title=The Voynich Code — The World's Mysterious Manuscript |author1=Steindl, Klaus |author2=Sulzer, Andreas |format=video |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309095747/http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/winners/tvf2011winners/pieces.php?iid=413203&pid=1 |archive-date=9 March 2012}}</ref><ref name="physorg">{{cite news |last=Stolte |first=Daniel |date=10 February 2011 |work=[[PhysOrg]] |url=http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-experts-age.html |title=Experts determine age of book 'nobody can read' |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=17 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117023549/http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-experts-age.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
| Place of origin = Unknown; possibly [[Italy]]<ref name="ngvideo" /><ref name="physorg" />
| Language(s) = Unknown; possibly [[Natural language|natural]]<ref name=Landini-2001 /> or [[constructed language]]<ref name=Tiltman-1967 /><ref name="plan" />{{efn|A very small number of words in the manuscript have been found to be [[Latin language|Latin]] and [[Old High German|High German]].<ref name=Tiltman-1967 />}}
| Author(s) = Unknown; suggested (amongst others):{{unbulleted list|[[Roger Bacon]]<ref name="Bacon/Mnishovsky" />|[[Wilfrid Voynich]] himself<ref name=Zandbergen-origin-of-ms />|[[Jacobus Sinapius|Jakub of Tepenec]]<ref name=Sinapius />|[[Athanasius Kircher]]<ref name=Zandbergen-letters />|Raphael Mnishovsky<ref name="Bacon/Mnishovsky" />|Antonio Averlino Filarete<ref name="Pelling" />|[[Cornelis Drebbel]]<ref name=Drebbel>{{cite web |url=http://www.santa-coloma.net/voynich_drebbel/voynich.html |title=New Atlantis Voynich Theory |last=SantaColoma |first=H. Richard |website=Santa-coloma.net |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=14 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190814062750/http://santa-coloma.net/voynich_drebbel/voynich.html |url-status=live}}</ref>|[[Anthony Ascham (astrologer)|Anthony Ascham]]<ref name=Tiltman-1967 />}}
<!----------Form and content---------->| Material = [[Vellum]]
| Size = ≈ {{convert|23.5|×|16.2|×|5|cm|in|abbr=on}}
| Format = One column in the page body, with slightly indented right margin and with [[paragraph]] divisions, and often with stars in the left margin;<ref name="MS 408" /> the rest of the manuscript appears in the form of graphics (i.e. diagrams or markings for certain parts related to illustrations), containing some foldable parts
| Condition = Partially damaged and incomplete; 240 out of 272 pages found (≈&nbsp;88%,<ref name="analysis" /><ref name="Pelling" /><ref name="MS 408" /> i.e. 18 out of 20 [[Units of paper quantity#Quire|quires]] found){{efn|The smallest estimated number is 272 pages (i.e. 20 quires), and it contains
>170,000 characters.<ref name="Schmeh" />}}
| Script = Unknown; possibly an invented script<ref name="KennedyChurchill2004" />{{efn|A very small number of words in the manuscript are in [[Latin]] script.<ref name=Tiltman-1967 /><ref name="analysis" />}}
| Contents = [[Herbal]], [[astronomical]], [[balneological]], [[cosmological]] and [[pharmaceutical]] sections and a section with recipes
| Illumination(s) = Colour ink, somewhat crude, was used for painting the figures, probably later than the time of creation of the text and the outlines themselves<ref name ="analysis" />
| Exemplar(s) = Two manuscript copies which Baresch sent twice to Kircher in Rome
| Previously kept = {{ubl|Unknown origin|[[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor]]|[[Jacobus Sinapius|Jakub of Tepenec]]|[[Georg Baresch]]|[[Athanasius Kircher]]|(Copies)|[[Jan Marek Marci]] (Joannes Marcus Marci)|[[Rector (academia)|Rector]] of [[Charles University]] in Prague|[[Athanasius Kircher]]|[[Pieter Beckx|Pieter Jan Beckx]]|[[Wilfrid Voynich]]|[[Ethel Voynich]]|Anne Nill|[[Hans P. Kraus|Hans Peter Kraus]]|[[Yale]]<ref name=Tiltman-1967 /><ref name=Zandbergen-letters /><ref name="MS 408" /><ref name=Schuster-2009 /><ref name=D-Imperio-1978 />}}
| Discovered = Earliest information about its existence comes from a letter that was found inside the covers of the manuscript—the letter was written in either 1665 or 1666
| Accession = MS&nbsp;408
| below = 
}}
[[File:Voynich Manuscript (3) f1r detail ((retouching)).jpg|thumb|right|Evidence of retouching of text on page 3; ''f1r'']]
[[File:Voynich Manuscript (131) f72v3 detail ((retouching)).jpg|thumb|right|Retouching of drawing on page 131; ''f72v3'']]

The '''Voynich manuscript''' is an illustrated [[codex]], hand-written in an unknown script referred to as '''Voynichese'''.{{sfn|Schinner|2007}} The [[vellum]] on which it is written has been [[carbon-dated]] to the early 15th century (1404–1438). Stylistic analysis has indicated the manuscript may have been composed in Italy during the [[Italian Renaissance]].<ref name="ngvideo" /><ref name="physorg" /> The origins, authorship, and purpose of the manuscript are still debated, but currently scholars lack the translation(s) and context needed to both properly entertain or eliminate any of the possibilities. Hypotheses range from a [[script (language)|script]] for a [[natural language]] or [[constructed language]], an unread [[code]], [[cipher|cypher]], or other form of [[cryptography]], or perhaps a [[hoax]], [[reference work]] (i.e. folkloric [[index (publishing)|index]] or [[compendium]]), [[glossolalia]]<ref>{{Cite book|author=Gerry Kennedy, Rob Churchill|title=The Voynich Manuscript|location=London|publisher=Orion|year=2004|isbn=978-0-7528-5996-5}}</ref> or work of [[Types of writing|fiction]] (e.g. [[science fantasy]] or [[mythopoeia]], [[metafiction]], [[speculative fiction]]).

The first confirmed owner was [[Georg Baresch]], a 17th-century [[alchemist]] from [[Prague]].<ref name=Zandbergen-letters /><ref>{{cite news |title=The mystery of the Voynich Manuscript |url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/43259/the-mystery-of-the-voynich-manuscript |work=Prospectmagazine.co.uk |date=16 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Unread: The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-unread-the-mystery-of-the-voynich-manuscript |magazine=The New Yorker |date=9 July 2013}}</ref> The manuscript is named after [[Wilfrid Voynich]], a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912.<ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Brumbaugh|1978}}</ref> The manuscript consists of around 240 pages, but there is evidence that pages are missing. The text is written from left to right, and some pages are foldable sheets of varying sizes. Most of the pages have fantastical illustrations and diagrams, some crudely coloured, with sections of the manuscript showing people, unidentified plants and [[astrological symbols]]. Since 1969, it has been held in [[Yale University]]'s [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]].<ref name="online">{{cite web |title=MS 408 |url=http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/imagenes_manuscrito/manuscrito002.jpg |format=image |publisher=Yale Library |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=10 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110144959/https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/imagenes_manuscrito/manuscrito002.jpg |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="MS 408" /><ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web |url=http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/voynich.html |title=Voynich Manuscript |access-date=8 June 2016 |publisher=Beinecke Library |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113093359/http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/voynich.html |archive-date=13 January 2013}}</ref> In 2020, Yale University published the manuscript online in its entirety in their [[digital library]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Voynich Manuscript |url=https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002046 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329064217/https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002046 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |access-date=26 April 2022 |website=Yale University Library – Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library}}</ref>

The Voynich manuscript has been studied by both professional and amateur [[cryptographer]]s, including American and British [[codebreakers]] from both [[World War I]] and [[World War II]].<ref name="MH2013">{{cite web |last=Hogenboom |first=Melissa |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22975809 |title=Mysterious Voynich manuscript has 'genuine message' |website=[[BBC News]] |date=21 June 2013|access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=2 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202095442/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22975809 |url-status=live}}</ref> Codebreakers [[Prescott Currier]], [[William F. Friedman|William Friedman]], [[Elizebeth Smith Friedman|Elizebeth Friedman]], and [[John Tiltman]] were unsuccessful.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |last=Turing = |first=Dermot |title=The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park |year=2020 |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-1-78950-621-1 |pages=135, 136}}</ref>

The manuscript has never been demonstrably deciphered, and none of the proposed hypotheses have been independently verified.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ciphermysteries.com/the-voynich-manuscript/voynich-theories |title=Voynich theories |last=Pelling |first=Nick |access-date=8 June 2016 |website=ciphermysteries.com |archive-date=28 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128223057/http://ciphermysteries.com/the-voynich-manuscript/voynich-theories |url-status=live}}</ref> The mystery of its meaning and origin has excited speculation and provoked study.

== Description ==
=== Codicology ===
The [[codicology]], or physical characteristics of the manuscript, has been studied by researchers. The manuscript measures {{convert|23.5| by|16.2| by |5|cm|in|abbr=on}}, with hundreds of [[vellum parchment|vellum]] pages collected into 18 [[Paper quire|quires]]. The total number of pages is around 240, but the exact number depends on how the manuscript's unusual foldouts are counted.<ref name="MS 408">{{harvnb|Shailor}}</ref> The quires have been numbered from 1 to 20 in various locations, using a style of numerals consistent with those used in the 15th century, and the top righthand corner of each [[recto and verso|''recto'']] (righthand) page has been numbered from 1 to 116, using a style of numerals that originated at a later date. From the various numbering gaps in the quires and pages, it seems likely that in the past, the manuscript had at least 272 pages in 20 quires, some of which were already missing when Wilfrid Voynich acquired the manuscript in 1912. There is strong evidence that many of the book's [[wikt:bifolio|bifolios]] were reordered at various points in the book's history, and that its pages were originally in a different order than the order they are in today.<ref name=analysis>{{harvnb|Barabe|2009}}</ref><ref name="Pelling">{{harvnb|Pelling|2006}}</ref>

=== Parchment, covers, and binding ===
Samples from various parts of the manuscript were [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dated]] at the [[University of Arizona]] in 2009. The results were consistent for all samples tested and indicated a date for the parchment between 1404 and 1438.<ref name=voynich.nu_origin /> Protein testing in 2014 revealed that the parchment was made from calfskin, and multispectral analysis showed that it had not been written on before the manuscript was created (i.e., it is not a [[palimpsest]]). The quality of the parchment is average and has deficiencies, such as holes and tears, common in parchment codices, but was also prepared with so much care that the skin side is largely indistinguishable from the flesh side.<ref name=voynich.nu_origin>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=The origin of the Voynich MS |url=http://www.voynich.nu/origin.html#n04 |website=Voynich.nu |date=11 May 2016 |access-date=8 June 2016 |archive-date=11 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211232255/http://voynich.nu/origin.html#n04 |url-status=live}}</ref> The parchment is prepared from "at least fourteen or fifteen entire calfskins".<ref name="EamonDuffy" />

Some [[folio]]s (such as 42 and 47) are thicker than the usual parchment.<ref name=voynich.nu_carbon>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=The Radio-Carbon Dating of the Voynich MS |url=http://www.voynich.nu/extra/carbon.html |website=Voynich.nu |date=11 May 2016 |access-date=8 June 2016 |archive-date=4 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804003815/http://www.voynich.nu/extra/carbon.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

The goat skin binding and covers<ref>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=About the binding of the MS |url=http://www.voynich.nu/descr.html#cover |website=Voynich.nu |date=27 May 2016 |access-date=9 June 2016 |archive-date=17 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817040619/http://voynich.nu/descr.html#cover |url-status=live}}</ref> are not original to the book, but date to its possession by the [[Roman College|Collegio Romano]].<ref name="MS 408" /> Insect holes are present on the first and last folios of the manuscript in the current order and suggest that a wooden cover was present before the later covers. Discolouring on the edges points to a tanned leather inside cover.<ref name=voynich.nu_origin />

=== Ink ===
Many pages contain substantial drawings or charts which are coloured with paint. Based on modern analysis using [[polarized light microscopy]] (PLM), it has been determined that a [[quill]] pen and [[iron gall ink]] were used for the text and figure outlines. The ink of the drawings, text, and page and quire numbers have similar microscopic characteristics. In 2009, [[energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy]] (EDS) revealed that the inks contained major amounts of carbon, iron, [[sulphur]], [[potassium]] and calcium with [[trace element|trace amounts]] of copper and occasionally zinc. EDS did not show the presence of lead, while [[X-ray diffraction]] (XRD) identified potassium [[Lead(II,IV) oxide|lead oxide]], potassium hydrogen sulphate, and [[syngenite]] in one of the samples tested. The similarity between the drawing inks and text inks suggested a contemporaneous origin.<ref name=analysis />

=== Paint ===
Coloured paint was applied (somewhat crudely) to the ink-outlined figures, possibly at a later date. The blue, white, red-brown, and green paints of the manuscript have been analysed using PLM, XRD, EDS, and [[Scanning electron microscope|scanning electron microscopy]] (SEM).

* The blue paint proved to be ground [[azurite]] with minor traces of the copper oxide [[cuprite]].<ref name=analysis />
* The white paint is likely a mixture of egg-white and [[calcium carbonate]].<ref name=analysis />
* The green paint is tentatively characterised by copper and copper-[[chlorine]] resinate; the crystalline material might be [[atacamite]] or some other copper-chlorine compound.<ref name=analysis />
* Analysis of the red-brown paint indicated a red [[ochre]] with the crystal phases [[hematite]] and iron sulphide. Minor amounts of lead sulphide and [[palmierite]] are possibly present in the red-brown paint.<ref name=analysis />

The pigments used were deemed inexpensive.<ref name=voynich.nu_origin />

=== Retouching ===
Computer scientist [[Jorge Stolfi]] of the [[University of Campinas]] highlighted that parts of the text and drawings have been modified, using darker ink over a fainter, earlier script. Evidence for this is visible in various folios, for example ''f1r'', ''f3v'', ''f26v'', ''f57v'', ''f67r2'', ''f71r'', ''f72v1'', ''f72v3'' and ''f73r''.<ref name=Stolfi>{{cite web |last=Stolfi |first=Jorge |date=22 July 2004 |title=Evidence of text retouching of f1r |url=http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/04-07-15-retouching/ |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=29 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029050643/http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/04-07-15-retouching/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Text ===
[[File:Voynich Manuscript (119).jpg|thumb|upright|Page 119; ''f66r'', showing characteristics of the text]]
[[File:Voynich manuscript recipe example 107r crop.jpg|thumb|Page 191; ''f107r'', text detail]]
Every page in the manuscript contains text, mostly in an unidentified language, but some have extraneous writing in [[Latin script]]. The bulk of the text in the 240-page manuscript is written in an unknown script, running left to right. Most of the characters are composed of one or two simple pen strokes. There exists some dispute as to whether certain characters are distinct, but a script of 20–25 characters would account for virtually all of the text; the exceptions are a few dozen rarer characters that occur only once or twice each. There is no obvious [[punctuation]].<ref name=Tiltman-1967 />

Much of the text is written in a single column in the body of a page, with a slightly ragged right margin and paragraph divisions and sometimes with stars in the left margin.<ref name="MS 408" /> Other text occurs in charts or as labels associated with illustrations. The [[wikt:ductus|ductus]] flows smoothly, giving the impression that the symbols were not [[cipher|enciphered]]; there is no delay between characters, as would normally be expected in written encoded text.

==== Extraneous writing ====
Only a few of the words in the manuscript are thought to have not been written in the unknown script:<ref name=D-Imperio-1978>{{cite book |last=D'Imperio |first=M.E. |author-link=Mary D'Imperio |year=1978 |title=The Voynich Manuscript: An elegant enigma |publisher=U.S. [[National Security Agency]] |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a070618.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927074208/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a070618.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=27 September 2020 |access-date=1 February 2021}}; Laguna Hills, CA: Aegean Park Press, 1978, {{isbn|978-0-89412-038-1}}; Saffron Walden, UK: Books Express Publishing, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-78039-009-3}}</ref>

* ''f1r'': A sequence of Latin letters in the right margin parallel with characters from the unknown script, also the now-unreadable signature of "[[Jacobus Sinapius|Jacobj à Tepenecz]]" is found in the bottom margin.<ref>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=Books once owned by Jacobus Horčický / Sinapius / de Tepenec |url=http://www.voynich.nu/extra/sinapius_books.html |website=Voynich.nu |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>
* ''f17r'': A line of writing in the Latin script in the top margin.
* ''f66r'': A small number of words in the bottom left corner near a drawing of a nude man have been read as {{lang|de|der Mussteil}}, a [[High German]]<ref name=D-Imperio-1978 /> phrase for 'a widow's share'.
* ''f70v–f73v'': The astrological series of diagrams in the astronomical section has the names of ten of the months (from March to December) written in Latin script, with spelling suggestive of the medieval languages of France, northwest Italy, or the [[Iberian Peninsula]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://inamidst.com/voynich/months |last=Palmer |first=Sean B. |year=2004 |title=Voynich Manuscript: Months |website=Inamidst.com |access-date=8 June 2016 |archive-date=27 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727124227/http://inamidst.com/voynich/months |url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''f116v'': Four lines written in rather distorted Latin script, referred to as "Michitonese", except for two words in the unknown script. The words in Latin script appear to be distorted with characteristics of the unknown language. The lettering resembles European alphabets of the late 14th and 15th centuries, but the words do not seem to make sense in any language.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://inamidst.com/voynich/michitonese |last=Palmer |first=Sean B. |title=Notes on f116v's Michitonese |website=Inamidst.com |year=2004 |access-date=8 June 2016 |archive-date=16 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216111218/http://inamidst.com/voynich/michitonese |url-status=live}}</ref> Whether these bits of Latin script were part of the original text or were added later is not known.
<gallery>
Voynich Manuscript (3).jpg|f1r
Voynich Manuscript (33).jpg|f17r
Voynich Manuscript (206).jpg|f116v ("Michitonese")
</gallery>

==== Transcription ====
Various transcription alphabets have been created to encode Voynich characters as Latin characters, to help with cryptanalysis,<ref>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=Text Analysis – Transcription of the Text |url=http://www.voynich.nu/transcr.html |website=Voynich.nu |access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=17 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817042737/http://voynich.nu/transcr.html |url-status=live}}</ref> such as the Extensible (originally: European) Voynich Alphabet (EVA).<ref>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=Text Analysis – Transcription of the Text: Eva |url=http://www.voynich.nu/transcr.html#Eva |website=Voynich.nu |access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=17 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817042737/http://voynich.nu/transcr.html#Eva |url-status=live}}</ref> The first major one was created by the "First Study Group", led by cryptographer [[William F. Friedman]] in the 1940s, where each line of the manuscript was transcribed to an IBM [[punch card]] to make it [[Machine-readable data|machine readable]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=Text Analysis – Transcription of the Text: FSG |url=http://www.voynich.nu/transcr.html#FSG |website=Voynich.nu |access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=17 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817042737/http://voynich.nu/transcr.html#FSG |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Reeds1994>{{cite web |url=http://www.apprendre-en-ligne.net/crypto/mystere/wff.pdf |title=William F. Friedman's Transcription of the Voynich Manuscript |last=Reeds |first=Jim |publisher=[[AT&T Bell Laboratories]] |date=7 September 1994 |pages=1–23 |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=29 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129071852/http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~reedsj/voynich/wff.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Voynich EVA.svg|thumb|center|upright=3.5|Extensible Voynich Alphabet: Capital EVA letters are sometimes used to illustrate different variations of the same symbol.]]

==== Statistical patterns ====
The text consists of over 170,000 characters,<ref name=Schmeh /> with spaces dividing the text into about 35,000 groups of varying length, usually referred to as "words" or "word tokens" (37,919); 8,114 of those words [[Hapax legomenon|are considered unique]] "word types".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Reddy |first1=Sravana |last2=Knight |first2=Kevin |year=2011 |title=What we know about the Voynich manuscript |pages=1–9 |url=http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/people/voynich-11.pdf |access-date=11 June 2016 |website=www.isi.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826041911/http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/people/voynich-11.pdf |archive-date=26 August 2011}}</ref> The structure of these words seems to follow [[phonological]] or [[orthography|orthographic]] laws of some sort; for example, certain characters must appear in each word (like English [[vowel]]s), some characters never follow others, or some may be doubled or tripled, but others may not. The distribution of letters within words is also rather peculiar: Some characters occur only at the beginning of a word, some only at the end (like Greek [[ς]]), and some always in the middle section.<ref>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=Analysis Section ( 2/5 ) – Character statistics |url=http://www.voynich.nu/a2_char.html |website=Voynich.nu |access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=17 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817033142/http://www.voynich.nu/a2_char.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Many researchers have commented upon the highly regular structure of the words.<ref>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |date=26 December 2015 |title=Analysis Section ( 3/5 ) – Word structure |url=http://www.voynich.nu/a3_para.html |website=Voynich.nu |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=2 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602032135/http://voynich.nu/a3_para.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Professor Gonzalo Rubio, an expert in ancient languages at [[Pennsylvania State University]], stated:

{{blockquote|The things we know as {{em|grammatical markers}} – things that occur commonly at the beginning or end of words, such as 's' or 'd' in our language, and that are used to express grammar, never appear in the middle of 'words' in the Voynich manuscript. That's unheard of for any Indo-European, Hungarian, or Finnish language.<ref name=Telegraph>{{cite web |last=Day |first=Michael |date=24 May 2011 |title=The Voynich Manuscript: will we ever be able to read this book? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8532458/The-Voynich-Manuscript-will-we-ever-be-able-to-read-this-book.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8532458/The-Voynich-Manuscript-will-we-ever-be-able-to-read-this-book.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |access-date=8 June 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}

Stephan Vonfelt studied statistical properties of the distribution of letters and their correlations (properties which can be vaguely characterised as rhythmic resonance, alliteration, or assonance) and found that under that respect Voynichese is more similar to the [[Mandarin Chinese]] {{transliteration|zh|[[pinyin]]}} text of the ''[[Records of the Grand Historian]]'' than to the text of works from European languages, although the numerical differences between Voynichese and Mandarin Chinese pinyin look larger than those between Mandarin Chinese pinyin and European languages.<ref>{{cite web |last=Vonfelt |first=S. |year=2014 |title=The strange resonances of the Voynich manuscript |website=[[Free (ISP)]] Graphométrie |url=http://graphometrie.free.fr/publications/Voynich_en.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928122339/http://graphometrie.free.fr/publications/Voynich_en.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2018}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=November 2019|reason=Has anyone else done a similar analysis and reached a similar result?}}

Practically no words have fewer than two letters or more than ten.<ref name="Schmeh">{{cite magazine |last=Schmeh |first=Klaus |date=January–February 2011 |title=The Voynich manuscript: The book nobody can read |magazine=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |volume=35 |issue=1 |access-date=8 June 2016 |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_voynich_manuscript_the_book_nobody_can_read |archive-date=16 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916085805/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_voynich_manuscript_the_book_nobody_can_read |url-status=live}}</ref> Some words occur in only certain sections, or in only a few pages; others occur throughout the manuscript. Few repetitions occur among the thousand or so labels attached to the illustrations. There are instances where the same common word appears up to five times in a row<ref name="Schmeh" /> (see [[Zipf's law]]). Words that differ by only one letter also repeat with unusual frequency, causing single-substitution alphabet decipherings to yield babble-like text. In 1962, [[cryptanalyst]] [[Elizebeth Friedman]] described such statistical analyses as "doomed to utter frustration".{{refn|
{{cite news |last=Friedman |first=Elizebeth |author-link=Elizebeth Friedman |date=5 August 1962 |title=The most mysterious ms. – still an enigma |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |pages=E1, E5 |url=http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de//dokumente/b/b043178.pdf}} – quoted by D'Imperio (1978)<ref name=D-Imperio-1978 />{{rp|page=27 (§#x202f;4.4)}}
}}

In 2014, a team led by Diego Amancio of the [[University of São Paulo]] published a study using statistical methods to analyse the relationships of the words in the text. Instead of trying to find the meaning, Amancio's team looked for connections and clusters of words. By measuring the frequency and intermittence of words, Amancio claimed to identify the text's [[keyword (linguistics)|keywords]] and produced three-dimensional models of the text's structure and word frequencies. The team concluded that, in 90% of cases, the Voynich systems are similar to those of other known books, indicating that the text is in an actual language, not random [[gibberish]].<ref name=Amancio-etal-2013 />

{{blockquote|The use of the framework was exemplified with the analysis of the Voynich manuscript, with the final conclusion that it differs from a random sequence of words, being compatible with natural languages. Even though our approach is not aimed at deciphering Voynich, it was capable of providing keywords that could be helpful for decipherers in the future.<ref name=Amancio-etal-2013 />}}

Linguists [[Claire Bowern]] and Luke Lindemann have applied statistical methods to the Voynich manuscript, comparing it to other languages and encodings of languages, and have found both similarities and differences in statistical properties. Character sequences in languages are measured using a metric called h2, or second-order conditional entropy. Natural languages tend to have an h2 between 3 and 4, but Voynichese has much more predictable character sequences, and an h2 around 2. However, at higher levels of organisation, the Voynich manuscript displays properties similar to those of natural languages. Based on this, Bowern dismisses theories that the manuscript is gibberish.<ref name="Miller">{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Greg |title=Can statistics help crack the mysterious Voynich manuscript? |journal=[[Knowable Magazine]] |date=20 August 2021 |doi=10.1146/knowable-081921-1 |url=https://knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2021/can-statistics-help-crack-mysterious-voynich-manuscript |access-date=31 August 2021 |doi-access=free |archive-date=29 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211129071518/https://knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2021/can-statistics-help-crack-mysterious-voynich-manuscript |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}</ref> It is likely to be an encoded natural language or a constructed language. Bowern also concludes that the statistical properties of the Voynich manuscript are not consistent with the use of a [[substitution cipher]] or [[polyalphabetic cipher]].<ref name="Bowern">{{cite journal |last1=Bowern |first1=Claire L. |last2=Lindemann |first2=Luke |title=The Linguistics of the Voynich Manuscript |journal=Annual Review of Linguistics |date=14 January 2021 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=285–308 |doi=10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030613 |s2cid=228894621 |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030613 |access-date=30 August 2021 |archive-date=2 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902103307/https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030613 |url-status=live}}</ref>

As noted in Bowern's review, multiple scribes or "hands" may have written the manuscript, possibly using two methods of encoding at least one natural language.<ref name="Bowern" /><ref name="Currier1976">{{cite web |last1=Currier |first1=PH |last2=Zandbergen |first2=R |title=Papers on the Voynich manuscript. The Voynich Manuscript |url=http://www.voynich.nu/extra/curr_main.html |access-date=30 August 2021 |archive-date=13 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513035016/http://www.voynich.nu/extra/curr_main.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Davis2020">{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Lisa Fagin |title=How many glyphs and how many scribes? Digital paleography and the Voynich Manuscript |journal=Manuscr. Stud. |date=2020 |volume=5 |pages=164–80 |doi=10.1353/mns.2020.0011 |s2cid=218957807 |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=mss_sims |access-date=30 August 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926115210/https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=mss_sims |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Reddy2011">{{cite book |last1=Reddy |chapter=What we know about the Voynich manuscript |first1=Sravana |last2=Knight |first2=Kevin |title=Proceedings of the 5th ACL-HLT Workshop on Language Technology for Cultural Heritage, Social Sciences, and Humanities |date=2011 |publisher=Assoc. Comput. Linguist. |location=Stroudsburg, PA |pages=78–86}}</ref> The "language" Voynich A appears in the herbal and pharmaceutical parts of the manuscript. The "language" known as Voynich B appears in the [[balneological]] section, some parts of the medicinal and herbal sections, and the astrological section. The most common vocabulary items of Voynich A and Voynich B are substantially different. [[Topic modeling]] of the manuscript suggests that pages identified as written by a particular scribe may relate to a different topic.<ref name="Bowern" />

In terms of [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], if visual spaces in the manuscript are assumed to indicate word breaks, there are consistent patterns that suggest a three-part word structure of prefix, root or midfix, and suffix. Certain characters and character combinations are more likely to appear in particular fields. There are minor variations between Voynich A and Voynich B. The predictability of certain letters in a relatively small number of combinations in certain parts of words appears to explain the low entropy (h2) of Voynichese. In the absence of obvious punctuation, some variants of the same word appear to be specific to typographical positions, such as the beginning of a paragraph, line, or sentence.<ref name="Bowern" />

The Voynich word frequencies of both variants appear to conform to a [[Zipfian distribution]], supporting the idea that the text has linguistic meaning. This has implications for the encoding methods most likely to have been used, since some forms of encoding interfere with the Zipfian distribution. Measures of the proportional frequency of the ten most common words is similar to those of the Semitic, Iranian, and Germanic languages. Another measure of morphological complexity, the Moving-Average Type–Token Ratio (MATTR) index, is similar to Iranian, Germanic, and Romance languages.<ref name="Bowern" />

=== Illustrations ===
[[File:Voynich manuscript bathtub2 example 78r cropped.jpg|thumb|A detail from the [[Balneology|balneological]] section of the manuscript]]
[[File:Voynich Manuscript (50) detail ((dragon)).jpg|thumb|upright|right|Detail of page 50, ''f25v''; resembling a dragon]]
[[File:Voynich-86-1006231.jpg|thumb|upright|Detail of page 158, ''f86r6''; the castle]]
Because the text cannot be read, the manuscript is conventionally divided into sections based on its illustrations. Most of the manuscript forms six different sections, each typified by illustrations with different styles and supposed subject matter<ref name="Schmeh" /> except for the last section, in which the only drawings are small stars in the margin. The conventional sections are:

* '''Herbal, 112 folios:''' Each page displays one or two plants and a few paragraphs of text, a format typical of European [[herbal]]s of the time. Some parts of these drawings are larger and cleaner copies of sketches seen in the "pharmaceutical" section. None of the plants depicted are unambiguously identifiable.<ref name="MS 408" /><ref name=VIB>{{cite web |last=Schwerdtfeger |first=Elias |year=2004 |title=Voynich Information Browser |url=http://voynich.freie-literatur.de/index.php?show=overview |access-date=11 June 2016|archive-date=26 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726165051/http://voynich.freie-literatur.de/index.php?show=overview}}</ref>
* '''Astronomical, 21 folios:''' Contains circular diagrams suggestive of [[astronomy]] or [[astrology]], some of them with suns, moons, and stars. One series of 12 diagrams depicts conventional symbols for the [[zodiac]]al constellations (two fish for [[Pisces (constellation)|Pisces]], a bull for [[Taurus (constellation)|Taurus]], a hunter with crossbow for [[Sagittarius (constellation)|Sagittarius]], etc.). Each of these has 30 female figures arranged in two or more concentric bands. Most of the females are at least partly nude, and each holds what appears to be a labelled star or is shown with the star attached to either arm by what could be a tether or cord of some kind. The last two pages of this section were lost ([[Aquarius (constellation)|Aquarius]] and [[Capricornus]], roughly February and January), while [[Aries (constellation)|Aries]] and Taurus are split into four paired diagrams with 15 women and 15 stars each. Some of these diagrams are on fold-out pages.<ref name="MS 408" /><ref name=VIB />
* '''Balneological, 20 folios:''' A dense, continuous text interspersed with drawings, mostly showing small nude women, some wearing crowns, bathing in pools or tubs connected by an elaborate network of pipes. The bifolio consists of folios 78 (verso) and 81 (recto); it forms an integrated design, with water flowing from one folio to the other.<ref name=voynich.nu_origin /><ref name=VIB />
* '''Cosmological, 13 folios:''' More circular diagrams, but they are of an obscure nature. This section also has foldouts; one of them spans six pages, commonly called the Rosettes folio, and contains a map or diagram with nine "islands" or "rosettes" connected by "[[causeway]]s" and containing castles, as well as what might be a volcano.<ref name="MS 408" /><ref name=VIB /><ref name=Zandbergen-rosettes>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |date=17 May 2016 |title=Rosettes folio |url=http://www.voynich.nu/q14/index.html#fRos |access-date=9 June 2016|archive-date=17 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817020007/http://www.voynich.nu/q14/index.html#fRos |url-status=live}}</ref>
* '''Pharmaceutical, 34 folios:''' Many labelled drawings of isolated plant parts (roots, leaves, etc.), objects resembling [[apothecary]] jars, ranging in style from the mundane to the fantastical, and a few text paragraphs.<ref name="MS 408" /><ref name=VIB />
* '''Recipes, 22 folios:''' Full pages of text broken into many short paragraphs, each marked with a star in the left margin.<ref name="MS 408" /><ref name=VIB />

Five folios contain only text, and at least 14 folios (28 pages) are missing from the manuscript.<ref name=VIB />

=== Purpose ===
[[File:Voynich Manuscript (167).jpg|thumb|Page 167, ''f93r'', has been interpreted to represent a sunflower<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Neill |first=Hugh |date=January 1944 |title=Botanical Observations on the Voynich MS. |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/2856859 |journal=Speculum |publisher=University of Chicago Press |volume=19 |issue=1 |page=126 |doi=10.2307/2856859 |issn=0038-7134}}</ref>]]
The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript is that it was meant to serve as a [[pharmacopoeia]] or to address topics in [[Medieval medicine of Western Europe|medieval or early modern medicine]]. However, the puzzling details of the illustrations have fuelled many theories about the book's origin, the contents of its text, and the purpose for which it was intended.<ref name="Schmeh" />

The first section of the book is almost certainly [[herbal]], but attempts have failed to identify the plants, either with actual specimens or with the stylised drawings of contemporaneous herbals.<ref name="KennedyChurchill2011">{{harvnb|Kennedy|Churchill|2011|pp=12–}}</ref> Only a few of the plant drawings can be identified with reasonable certainty, such as a [[Viola tricolor|wild pansy]] and the [[maidenhair fern]]. The herbal pictures that match pharmacological sketches appear to be clean copies of them, except that missing parts were completed with improbable details. In fact, many of the plant drawings in the herbal section seem to be composite: the roots of one species have been fastened to the leaves of another, with flowers from a third.<ref name="KennedyChurchill2011" />

Astrological considerations frequently played a prominent role in herb gathering, [[bloodletting]], and other medical procedures common during the likeliest dates of the manuscript. However, interpretation remains speculative, apart from the obvious [[Zodiac]] symbols and one diagram possibly showing the [[classical planet]]s.<ref name="Schmeh" />

== History ==
[[File:Jan Marcus Marci 00.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Jan Marek Marci|Joannes Marcus Marci]], who sent the manuscript to [[Athanasius Kircher]] in 1665 or 1666]]
[[File:Michał Wojnicz wśród książek w swoim antykwariacie na Soho Square.jpg|thumb|Voynich among his books in Soho Square]]

Much of the book's early [[provenance]] is unknown,<ref name=Zandbergen-history>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |url=http://www.voynich.nu/history.html |title=Voynich MS – Long tour: Known history of the manuscript |website=Voynich.nu |access-date=8 June 2016 |archive-date=7 October 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001007110957/http://www.voynich.nu/history.html |url-status=live}}</ref> though the text and illustrations are all characteristically European. In 2009, [[University of Arizona]] researchers [[radiocarbon dated]] the manuscript's vellum to between 1404 and 1438.<ref name="physorg" /><ref name=monsters>{{cite web |url=http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1516863.php/Mysterious-Voynich-manuscript-is-genuine-scientists-find |title=Mysterious Voynich manuscript is genuine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105013145/http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1516863.php/Mysterious-Voynich-manuscript-is-genuine-scientists-find |archive-date=5 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Stolte |first=Daniel |title=UA Experts Determine Age of Book 'Nobody Can Read' |url=http://uanews.org/node/37825 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217095619/http://uanews.org/node/37825 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=17 February 2011 |publisher=University of Arizona |date=9 February 2011 |access-date=8 June 2016}}</ref> In addition, [[McCrone Associates]] in Westmont, Illinois, found that the paints in the manuscript were of materials to be expected from that period of European history. There have been erroneous reports that McCrone Associates indicated that much of the ink was added not long after the creation of the parchment, but their official report contains no such statement.<ref name=analysis />

The first confirmed owner was [[Georg Baresch]], a 17th-century [[alchemist]] from [[Prague]]. Baresch was apparently puzzled about this "[[Sphinx|Sphynx]]" that had been "taking up space uselessly in his library" for many years.<ref name=Zandbergen-letters /> He learned that [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] scholar [[Athanasius Kircher]] from the [[Collegio Romano]] had published a [[Coptic language|Coptic]] ([[Egyptology|Egyptian]]) dictionary and [[Oedipus Aegyptiacus|claimed to have deciphered]] the [[Egyptian hieroglyph]]s; Baresch twice sent a sample copy of the script to Kircher in Rome, asking for clues. The 1639 letter from Baresch to Kircher is the earliest known mention of the manuscript to have been confirmed.<ref name=Schuster-2009>{{cite book |last=Schuster |first=John |year=2009 |title=Haunting Museums |pages=175–272 |publisher=Tom Doherty Associates |isbn=978-1-4299-5919-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBvnz9i0h8sC&pg=PA175 |access-date=8 June 2016}}</ref>

Whether Kircher answered the request or not is not known, but he was apparently interested enough to try to acquire the book, which Baresch refused to yield.<ref name="Schuster-2009" /> Upon Baresch's death, the manuscript passed to his friend [[Jan Marek Marci]] (also known as Johannes Marcus Marci), then [[Rector (academia)|rector]] of [[Charles University]] in Prague. A few years later, Marci sent the book to Kircher, his longtime friend and correspondent.<ref name=Schuster-2009 />

Marci also sent Kircher a cover letter (in Latin, dated 19 August 1665 or 1666) that was still attached to the book when Voynich acquired it:<ref name=Zandbergen-letters>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |date=19 May 2016 |title=17th Century letters related to the MS |series=Voynich manuscript |url=http://www.voynich.nu/letters.html |website=Voynich.nu |access-date=9 June 2016|archive-date=14 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114181841/http://voynich.nu/letters.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Jackson-2015>{{cite web |last=Jackson |first=David |date=23 January 2015 |title=The Marci letter found inside the VM |url=http://www.davidjackson.info/voynich/2015/01/23/the-merci-letter-found-inside-the-vm/ |access-date=9 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128221832/http://www.davidjackson.info/voynich/2015/01/23/the-merci-letter-found-inside-the-vm/ |archive-date=28 January 2020}}</ref><ref name=Knight-2009>{{cite web |last=Knight |first=Kevin |date=September 2009 |title=The Voynich manuscript |url=http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/people/voynich.pdf |access-date=9 June 2016 |archive-date=29 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729103854/https://www.isi.edu/natural-language/people/voynich.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Ensanian-2007>{{cite web |last=Ensanian |first=Berj N. |date=27 February 2007 |title=Archive of communications of the Journal of Voynich Studies |url=http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/JVSvolI2007.htm|access-date=9 June 2016|archive-date=12 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312085353/http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/JVSvolI2007.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=LetterBeinecke>{{cite web |title=Beinecke 408A |url=http://www.voynich.net/neal/marci_transcription.html#beinecke |access-date=9 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602083733/http://www.voynich.net/neal/marci_transcription.html#beinecke |archive-date=2 June 2016}}</ref><ref name=NealLetter>{{cite web |last=Neal |first=Philip |title=The letter of Johannes Marcus Marci to Athanasius Kircher (1665) |url=http://www.voynich.net/neal/marci_1665_translation.html |access-date=9 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315091931/http://www.voynich.net/neal/marci_1665_translation.html |archive-date=15 March 2016}}</ref><ref name=DosSantos>{{cite web |last=Santos |first=Marcelo dos |title=El Manuscrito Voynich |url=http://axxon.com.ar/rev/140/c-140Divulgacion.htm |language=es |access-date=9 June 2016|archive-date=13 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113062811/http://axxon.com.ar/rev/140/c-140Divulgacion.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Reverend and Distinguished Sir, Father in Christ:

This book, bequeathed to me by an intimate friend, I destined for you, my very dear Athanasius, as soon as it came into my possession, for I was convinced that it could be read by no one except yourself.

The former owner of this book asked your opinion by letter, copying and sending you a portion of the book from which he believed you would be able to read the remainder, but he at that time refused to send the book itself. To its deciphering he devoted unflagging toil, as is apparent from attempts of his which I send you herewith, and he relinquished hope only with his life. But his toil was in vain, for such Sphinxes as these obey no one but their master, Kircher. Accept now this token, such as it is and long overdue though it be, of my affection for you, and burst through its bars, if there are any, with your wonted success.

Dr. Raphael, a tutor in the [[Czech language|Bohemian language]] to Ferdinand III, then King of Bohemia, told me the said book belonged to the [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Rudolf]] and that he presented to the bearer who brought him the book 600 [[ducat]]s. He believed the author was [[Roger Bacon]], the Englishman. On this point I suspend judgement; it is your place to define for us what view we should take thereon, to whose favor and kindness I unreservedly commit myself and remain

At the command of your Reverence,

Joannes Marcus Marci of Cronland

Prague, 19th August, 1665 [or 1666]}}

The "Dr. Raphael" is believed to be [[Raphael Sobiehrd-Mnishovsky]],<ref name=Tiltman-1967 /> and the sum of 600 ducats is {{convert|{{multiply|54/480|600}}|ozt|kg|lk=on|abbr=on}} of [[actual gold weight]]. The only matching transaction in Rudolf's records is the 1599 purchase of "a couple of remarkable/rare books" from [[Karl Widemann|Carl Widemann]] for the sum of 600 [[florin]]s.<ref name=Guzy-2022>{{cite journal |last=Guzy |first=Stefan |year=2022 |title=Book Transactions of Emperor Rudolf II, 1576–1612: New Findings on the Earliest Ownership of the Voynich Manuscript |journal=CEUR Workshop Proceedings |volume=3313 |url=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3313/paper16.pdf |access-date=10 January 2023 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110035236/https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3313/paper16.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Widemann was a prolific collector of esoteric and alchemical manuscripts, so his ownership of the manuscript is plausible, but unproven.<ref name=Guzy-2022 />

While Wilfrid Voynich took Raphael's claims at face value, the Bacon authorship theory has been largely discredited.<ref name=D-Imperio-1978 /> However, a piece of evidence supporting Rudolf's ownership is the now almost invisible name or signature, on the first page of the book, of [[Jacobus Sinapius|Jacobus Horcicky de Tepenecz]], the head of Rudolf's botanical gardens in Prague. Rudolf died still owing money to de Tepenecz, and it is possible that de Tepenecz may have been given the book (or simply taken it) in partial payment of that debt.<ref name=Zandbergen-history />

[[File:Wilfrid Voynich c1920.jpg|thumb|[[Wilfrid Voynich]] acquired the manuscript in 1912.]]
No records of the book for the next 200 years have been found, but in all likelihood, it was stored with the rest of Kircher's correspondence in the library of the [[Collegio Romano]] (now the [[Pontifical Gregorian University]]).<ref name=Schuster-2009 /> It probably remained there until the troops of [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy]] captured the city in 1870 and annexed the [[Papal States]]. The new Italian government decided to confiscate many properties of the Church, including the library of the Collegio.<ref name=Schuster-2009 /> Many books of the university's library were hastily transferred to the personal libraries of its faculty just before this happened, according to investigations by Xavier Ceccaldi and others, and those books were exempt from confiscation.<ref name=Schuster-2009 /> Kircher's correspondence was among those books, and so, apparently, was the Voynich manuscript, as it still bears the ''[[bookplate|ex libris]]'' of [[Pieter Beckx|Petrus Beckx]], head of the Jesuit order and the university's rector at the time.<ref name="MS 408" /><ref name=Schuster-2009 />

Beckx's private library was moved to the [[Villa Mondragone]], [[Frascati]], a large country palace near Rome that had been bought by the [[Society of Jesus]] in 1866 and housed the headquarters of the Jesuits' [[Ghislieri College]].<ref name=Schuster-2009 />

In 1903, the Society of Jesus (Collegio Romano) was short of money and decided to sell some of its holdings discreetly to the [[Vatican Library]]. The sale took place in 1912, but not all of the manuscripts listed for sale ended up going to the Vatican.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archiviopug.org/2016/10/22/the-journey-to-america-of-a-set-of-manuscripts-from-the-collegium-romanum |title=The journey to America of a set of manuscripts from the Collegium Romanum |publisher=Gregorian Archives |date=22 October 2016 |access-date=25 October 2017 |archive-date=25 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025132051/https://archiviopug.org/2016/10/22/the-journey-to-america-of-a-set-of-manuscripts-from-the-collegium-romanum/ |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Wilfrid Voynich]] acquired 30 of these manuscripts, among them the one which now bears his name.<ref name=Schuster-2009 /> He spent the next seven years attempting to interest scholars in deciphering the script, while he worked to determine the origins of the manuscript.<ref name=Tiltman-1967 />

In 1930, the manuscript was inherited after Wilfrid's death by his widow [[Ethel Voynich]], author of the novel ''[[The Gadfly]]'' and daughter of mathematician [[George Boole]]. She died in 1960 and left the manuscript to her close friend Anne Nill. In 1961, Nill sold the book to antique book dealer [[Hans P. Kraus]]. Kraus was unable to find a buyer and donated the manuscript to Yale University in 1969, where it was catalogued as "MS 408",<ref name=D-Imperio-1978 /> sometimes also referred to as "Beinecke MS 408".<ref name="MS 408" />

=== Timeline of ownership ===
The timeline of ownership of the Voynich manuscript is given below. The time when it was possibly created is shown in green (early 1400s), based on [[carbon dating]] of the [[vellum]].<ref name=Zandbergen-history /> Periods of unknown ownership are indicated in white. The commonly accepted owners of the 17th century are shown in orange; the long period of storage in the Collegio Romano is yellow. The location where Wilfrid Voynich allegedly acquired the manuscript (Frascati) is shown in green (late 1800s); Voynich's ownership is shown in red, and modern owners are highlighted blue.
{{Timeline of Voynich manuscript ownership}}

== Authorship hypotheses ==
Many people have been proposed as possible authors of the Voynich manuscript, among them [[Roger Bacon]], [[John Dee]] or [[Edward Kelley]], [[Giovanni Fontana (engineer)|Giovanni Fontana]], and Voynich.

=== Early history ===
[[File:AACHEN, Hans von - Portrait of Emperor Rudolf II - WGA.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolf II]], portrait by [[Hans von Aachen]].]]
Marci's 1665/1666 cover letter to Kircher says that, according to his friend the late [[Raphael Sobiehrd-Mnishovsky|Raphael Mnishovsky]], the book had once been bought by [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor]] and King of [[Bohemia]] for 600&nbsp;[[ducat]]s, {{convert|{{multiply|54/480|600}}|ozt|kg|lk=on|abbr=on}}<!-- see calculation above --> of actual gold weight. (Mnishovsky had died in 1644, more than 20&nbsp;years earlier, and the deal must have occurred before Rudolf's abdication in 1611, at least 55&nbsp;years before Marci's letter. However, [[Karl Widemann]] sold books to Rudolf&nbsp;II in March&nbsp;1599.)

[[File:Roger Bacon in his observatory at Merton College, Oxford. Oi Wellcome M0001840.jpg|upright|right|thumb|alt=Wellcome Library, oil|Ernest Board's portrayal of Bacon in his observatory at [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]]]]
According to the letter, Mnishovsky (but not necessarily Rudolf) speculated that the author was 13th-century [[Franciscan]] friar and [[polymath]] [[Roger Bacon]].<ref name="Bacon/Mnishovsky">
{{cite web |url=http://www.voynichcentral.com/users/philipneal/seventeenthcentury/raphael_sentence.html |title=Philip Neal's analysis of Marci's grammar |website=Voynich Central |access-date=8 June 2016<!-- 17 November 2011 --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007181002/http://www.voynichcentral.com/users/philipneal/seventeenthcentury/raphael_sentence.html |archive-date=7 October 2011}}</ref> Marci said that he was suspending judgment about this claim, but it was taken quite seriously by Wilfrid Voynich, who did his best to confirm it.<ref name=Schuster-2009 /> Voynich contemplated the possibility that the author was [[Albertus Magnus]] if not Roger Bacon.<ref name=Zandbergen-solvers />

[[File:John Dee Ashmolean.jpg|upright|left|thumb|Mathematician [[John Dee]] may have sold the manuscript to Emperor Rudolf around 1600.]]
The assumption that Bacon was the author led Voynich to conclude that [[John Dee]] sold the manuscript to Rudolf. Dee was a mathematician and astrologer at the court of Queen [[Elizabeth I of England]] who was known to have owned a large collection of Bacon's manuscripts.

[[File:EdwKelley.jpg|upright|thumb|right|[[Edward Kelley]] might have created the manuscript as a fraud]]Dee and his ''[[scryer]]'' ([[spirit medium]]) [[Edward Kelley]] lived in Bohemia for several years, where they had hoped to sell their services to the emperor. However, this sale seems quite unlikely, according to John Schuster, because Dee's meticulously kept diaries do not mention it.<ref name=Schuster-2009 />
If Bacon did not create the Voynich manuscript, a supposed connection to Dee is much weakened. It was thought possible, prior to the carbon dating of the manuscript, that Dee or Kelley might have written it and spread the rumour that it was originally a work of Bacon's in the hopes of later selling it.<ref name=Winter-2015 />{{rp|page=249}}

=== Fabrication by Voynich ===
Some suspect Voynich of having fabricated the manuscript himself.<ref name=Zandbergen-origin-of-ms>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=Origin of the manuscript |website=Voynich.nu |url=http://www.voynich.nu/origin.html |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=11 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211232255/http://voynich.nu/origin.html |url-status=live}}</ref> As an antique book dealer, he probably had the necessary knowledge and means, and a lost book by Roger Bacon would have been worth a fortune. Furthermore, Baresch's letter and Marci's letter only establish the existence of a manuscript, not that the Voynich manuscript is the same one mentioned. These letters could possibly have been the motivation for Voynich to fabricate the manuscript, assuming that he was aware of them. However, many consider the expert internal dating of the manuscript and the June&nbsp;1999<ref name=Zandbergen-history /> discovery of Baresch's letter to Kircher as having eliminated this possibility.<ref name=Zandbergen-origin-of-ms /><ref name=Schuster-2009 />

[[Eamon Duffy]] says that the radiocarbon dating of the parchment (or, more accurately, vellum) "effectively rules out any possibility that the manuscript is a post-medieval forgery", as the consistency of the pages indicates origin from a single source, and "it is inconceivable" that a quantity of unused parchment comprising "at least fourteen or fifteen entire calfskins" could have survived from the early 15th&nbsp;century.<ref name="EamonDuffy">{{cite magazine |last=Duffy |first=Eamon |title=Secret Knowledge – or a Hoax? |magazine=The New York Review of Books |volume=64 |issue=7 |pages=44–46 |date=20 April 2017}}</ref>

=== Giovanni Fontana ===
[[File:Feuerhexe.jpg|alt=One of Fontana's fantastical illustrations.|thumb|upright|One of Giovanni Fontana's fantastical illustrations, c.&nbsp;1420–1430]]
It has been suggested that some illustrations in the books of an Italian engineer, [[Giovanni Fontana (engineer)|Giovanni Fontana]], slightly resemble Voynich illustrations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://philipneal.net/voynichsources/fontana_cipher_manuscripts |title=The enciphered manuscripts of Giovanni Fontana |last=Neal |first=Philip |access-date=31 January 2018 |archive-date=15 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215201648/http://philipneal.net/voynichsources/fontana_cipher_manuscripts/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Fontana was familiar with cryptography and used it in his books, although he did not use the Voynich script but a simple substitution cipher. In the book ''Secretum de thesauro experimentorum ymaginationis hominum'' (Secret of the treasure-room of experiments in man's imagination), written c.&nbsp;1430, Fontana described [[mnemonic]] machines, written in his cypher.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/galleryofmemoryl0000bolz |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/galleryofmemoryl0000bolz/page/102 102] |quote=Secretum de Thesauro |title=The Gallery of Memory: Literary and Iconographic Models in the Age of the Printing Press |first=Lina |last=Bolzoni |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8020-4330-6}}</ref> That book and his ''Bellicorum instrumentorum liber'' both used a cryptographic system, described as a simple, rational cipher, based on signs without letters or numbers.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYvjRuLbwRQC&q=Secretum%20de%20Thesauro&pg=PT160 |title=Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance |first=Pamela O. |last=Long |publisher=JHU Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8018-6606-7 |access-date=4 November 2020 |archive-date=18 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318210326/https://books.google.com/books?id=cYvjRuLbwRQC&q=Secretum%20de%20Thesauro&pg=PT160#v=snippet&q=Secretum%20de%20Thesauro&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Other theories ===
Sometime before 1921, Voynich was able to read a name faintly written at the foot of the manuscript's first page: "Jacobj à Tepenecz". This is taken to be a reference to Jakub Hořčický of Tepenec, also known by his Latin name [[Jacobus Sinapius]]. Rudolf II had ennobled him in 1607, had appointed him his Imperial Distiller, and had made him curator of his botanical gardens as well as one of his personal physicians. Voynich (and many other people after him) concluded that Jacobus owned the Voynich manuscript prior to Baresch, and he drew a link from that to Rudolf's court, in confirmation of Mnishovsky's story.

Jacobus's name has faded further since Voynich saw it, but is still legible under [[ultraviolet]] light. It does not match the copy of his signature in a document located by Jan Hurych in 2003.<ref name="ngvideo" /><ref name="Sinapius">{{cite web |url=http://hurontaria.baf.cz/CVM/b12.htm |title=The New Signature of Horczicky and the Comparison of them all |website=Hurontaria.baf.cz |access-date=8 June 2016 <!-- 21 August 2008 --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126223023/http://hurontaria.baf.cz/CVM/b12.htm |archive-date=26 January 2009}}</ref> As a result, it has been suggested that the signature was added later, possibly even fraudulently by Voynich himself.<ref name=ngvideo /> <!-- the following sentence hidden because, without a source, it represents original research or pure speculation: --- Yet the difference between the two signatures does not necessarily disprove Hořčický's ownership, because the writing on page ''f1r'' might well have been an ownership mark added by a librarian at the time. -->

[[File:Voynich Manuscript (158).jpg|thumb|Some pages of the manuscript fold out to show larger diagrams.]]
Baresch's letter bears some resemblance to a hoax that [[Oriental studies|orientalist]] {{ill|Andreas Müller (orientalist)|lt=Andreas Müller|de|Andreas Müller (Orientalist)}} once played on [[Athanasius Kircher]]. Müller sent some unintelligible text to Kircher with a note explaining that it had come from Egypt, and asking him for a translation. Kircher reportedly solved it.<ref name=Hurych>{{cite web |last=Hurych |first=Jan B. |date=15 May 2009 |title=Athanasius Kircher – the VM in Rome |url=http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/16-4-2009-05-17/ |access-date=11 June 2016|archive-date=23 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823143143/http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/16-4-2009-05-17/ |url-status=live}}</ref> It has been speculated that these were both cryptographic tricks played on Kircher to make him look foolish.<ref name=Hurych /> <!-- the following has been hidden because, without a source, it represents original research or pure speculation: --- but the Voynich manuscript is on such a vastly different scale to a few signs in a letter that this seems somewhat out of scale for such an endeavour. -->

[[Raphael Sobiehrd-Mnishovsky|Raphael Mnishovsky]], the friend of Marci who was the reputed source of the Bacon story, was himself a cryptographer and apparently invented a cipher which he claimed was uncrackable (c.&nbsp;1618).<ref name=Hurych2>{{cite web |last=Hurych |first=Jan B. |date=20 December 2007 |title=More about Dr. Raphael Mnishowsky |url=http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/10-4-2007-12-20/ |access-date=11 June 2016|archive-date=23 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823144447/http://www.as.up.krakow.pl/jvs/library/10-4-2007-12-20/ |url-status=live}}</ref> This has led to the speculation that Mnishovsky might have produced the Voynich manuscript as a practical demonstration of his cipher and made Baresch his unwitting test subject. Indeed, the disclaimer in the Voynich manuscript cover letter could mean that Marci suspected some kind of deception.<ref name=Hurych2 />

In his 2006 book, [[Nick Pelling]] proposed that the Voynich manuscript was written by 15th-century North Italian architect [[Antonio Averlino]] (also known as "Filarete"), a theory broadly consistent with the radiocarbon dating.<ref name="Pelling" />

Jules Janick and Arthur O. Tucker, based on plant and animal identification, and the kabbalah map of central Mexico (folio 86v), argued that it was composed in Mexico between 1562 and 1572.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Unraveling the Voynich codex |date=2018 |publisher=Springer Science+Business Media |isbn=978-3-319-77293-6 |location=New York, NY}}</ref>

== Language hypotheses ==
[[File:Voynich manuscript excerpt.svg|thumb|The Voynich manuscript is written in an unknown [[writing system|script]].]]
Many hypotheses have been developed about the Voynich manuscript's "language", called ''Voynichese'':

{{Original research section|date=January 2017}}

=== Ciphers ===
According to the "letter-based cipher" theory, the Voynich manuscript contains a meaningful text in some European language that was intentionally rendered obscure by mapping it to the Voynich manuscript "alphabet" through a [[cipher]] of some sort—an [[algorithm]] that operated on individual letters. This was the working hypothesis for most 20th-century deciphering attempts, including an informal team of [[NSA]] cryptographers led by [[William F. Friedman]] in the early 1950s.<!--more names? SSG?--><ref name=Reeds1994 />

[[File:Vigenère square shading.svg|thumb|The Vigenère square or table may have been used for encryption and decryption.]]
The counterargument is that almost all cipher systems consistent with that era fail to match what is seen in the Voynich manuscript. For example, simple [[substitution cipher]]s would be excluded because the distribution of letter frequencies does not resemble that of any known language, while the small number of different letter shapes used implies that [[nomenclator cipher|nomenclator]] and [[homophonic cipher]]s should be ruled out, because these typically employ larger cipher alphabets. [[Polyalphabetic cipher]]s were invented by [[Leone Battista Alberti|Alberti]] in the 1460s and included the later [[Vigenère cipher]], but they usually yield ciphertexts where all cipher shapes occur with roughly equal probability, quite unlike the language-like letter distribution which the Voynich manuscript appears to have.

However, the presence of many tightly grouped shapes in the Voynich manuscript (such as "or", "ar", "ol", "al", "an", "ain", "aiin", "air", "aiir", "am", "ee", "eee", among others) does suggest that its cipher system may make use of a "verbose cipher", where single letters in a plaintext get enciphered into groups of fake letters. For example, the first two lines of page ''f15v'' contain "{{not a typo|oror or}}" and "{{not a typo|or or oro r}}", which strongly resemble how [[Roman numerals]] such as "CCC" or "XXXX" would look if verbosely enciphered.<ref name=Pelling2009>{{cite web |last=Pelling |first=Nick |date=27 August 2009 |title=Voynich cipher structure |url=http://ciphermysteries.com/2009/08/27/voynich-cipher-structure |access-date=29 June 2016|archive-date=6 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706174531/http://ciphermysteries.com/2009/08/27/voynich-cipher-structure |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Shorthand ===
In 1943, Joseph Martin Feely suggested that the manuscript might be a scientific diary, written in a private [[shorthand]] system, using abbreviations, for a language such as Latin. However, according to [[Mary D'Imperio]], "other scholars ... unanimously rejected" Feely's proposed readings of the text and the hypothesis that the text was composed using a "system of abbreviated forms" was "not considered acceptable".<ref name=D-Imperio-1978 />

=== Steganography ===
This theory holds that the text of the Voynich manuscript is mostly meaningless, but contains meaningful information hidden in inconspicuous details—e.g., the second letter of every word, or the number of letters in each line. This technique, called [[steganography]], is very old and was described by [[Johannes Trithemius]] in 1499. Though the plain text was speculated to have been extracted by a [[Cardan grille]] (an overlay with cut-outs for the meaningful text) of some sort, this seems somewhat unlikely because the words and letters are not arranged on anything like a regular grid.<!--Why does it need to be regular? Any grid could function for the obviously ingenious writer of this manuscript--> Still, steganographic claims are hard to prove or disprove, because [[stegotext]]s can be arbitrarily hard to find.

It has been suggested that the meaningful text could be encoded in the length or shape of certain pen strokes.<ref>{{harvnb|Banks|2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Vogt |first=Elmar |date=22 September 2009 |title=An Outline of the Stroke Theory as a Possible Method of Encipherment of the Voynich Manuscript |url=https://voynichthoughts.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/stroke.pdf |access-date=11 June 2016|archive-date=12 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912154158/https://voynichthoughts.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/stroke.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Natural language ===
Statistical analysis of the text reveals patterns similar to those of [[natural language]]s.<ref name=Bowern /> For instance, the [[Entropy (information theory)|word entropy]] (about 10&nbsp;bits per word) is similar to that of English or Latin texts.<ref name=Landini-2001>{{cite journal |last=Landini |first=Gabriel |date=October 2001 |title=Evidence of linguistic structure in the Voynich manuscript using spectral analysis |journal=[[Cryptologia]] |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=275–295 |doi=10.1080/0161-110191889932 |s2cid=28332554}}</ref>
Amancio ''et al.'' (2013)<ref name=Amancio-etal-2013 /> argued that the Voynich manuscript "is mostly compatible with natural languages and incompatible with random texts".<ref name=Amancio-etal-2013>{{cite journal |last1=Amâncio |first1=Diego R. |last2=Altmann |first2=Eduardo G. |last3=Rybski |first3=Diego |last4=Oliveira |first4=Osvaldo N. Jr. |last5=da&nbsp;Costa |first5=Luciano F. |date=July 2013 |title=Probing the statistical properties of unknown texts: Application to the Voynich manuscript |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=95–107 |arxiv=1303.0347 |doi=10.1080/01611190601133539 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...867310A |pmid=23844002 |pmc=3699599 |url=http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067310 |access-date = 8 June 2016|archive-date = 29 November 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141129101813/http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067310 |url-status = live}}</ref>

The linguist [[Jacques Guy]] once suggested that the Voynich manuscript text could be some little-known natural language, written [[plaintext]] with an invented alphabet. He suggested Chinese in jest, but later comparison of word length statistics with Vietnamese and Chinese made him view that hypothesis seriously.<ref name=Neidhart-2002-11-13>{{cite news |first=Christoph |last=Neidhart |date=13 November 2002 |title="Voynich-Manuskript" das grosse Rätselbuch |language=de |trans-title=The big puzzle-book |magazine=[[Die Weltwoche]] |type=interview |place=Zürich, CH |url=https://www.weltwoche.ch/ausgaben/2002-46/interview/das-grosse-raetselbuch-die-weltwoche-ausgabe-462002.html |access-date=22 December 2019 |archive-date=23 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223033041/https://www.weltwoche.ch/ausgaben/2002-46/interview/das-grosse-raetselbuch-die-weltwoche-ausgabe-462002.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
In many language families of East and Central Asia, mainly [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]] ([[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan]], and [[Burmese language|Burmese]]), [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] ([[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], [[Khmer language|Khmer]], etc.) and possibly [[Tai languages|Tai]] ([[Thai language|Thai]], [[Lao language|Lao]], etc.), [[morphemes]] generally have only one [[syllable]].<ref name=Hockett-1954>{{cite journal |first=Charles F. |last=Hockett |year=1951 |title=Review of John de&nbsp;Francis (1950) ''Nationalism and language reform in China'' |journal=Language |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=439–445 |doi=10.2307/409788 |jstor=409788 |quote=...&nbsp;an overwhelmingly high percentage of Chinese segmental morphemes (bound or free) consist of a single syllable; no more than perhaps five percent are longer than one syllable, and only a small handful are shorter. In this sense — in the sense of the favored canonical shape of morphemes — Chinese is indeed monosyllabic.}}</ref>

Child (1976),<ref name=Child-1976 /> a linguist of Indo-European languages for the U.S. [[National Security Agency]], proposed that the manuscript was written in a "hitherto unknown North Germanic dialect".<ref name=Child-1976>{{cite journal |last=Child |first=James R. |date=Summer 1976 |title=The Voynich manuscript revisited |volume=XXI |issue=3 |journal=NSA Technical Journal}}</ref>
He identified in the manuscript a "skeletal syntax several elements of which are reminiscent of certain Germanic languages", while the content is expressed using "a great deal of obscurity".<ref name=Child-2007>{{cite web |last=Child |first=James R. |year=2007 |title=Again, the Voynich manuscript |url=http://voynichmanuscript.net/voynichpaper.pdf |archive-date=16 June 2009|url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616205410/http://voynichmanuscript.net/voynichpaper.pdf |access-date=8 June 2016}}</ref>

In January&nbsp;2014, Professor Stephen Bax of the [[University of Bedfordshire]] made public his research into using "bottom up" methodology to understand the manuscript. His method involved looking for and translating [[proper noun]]s, in association with relevant illustrations, in the context of other languages of the same time period. A paper he posted online offers tentative translation of 14&nbsp;characters and 10&nbsp;words.<ref>{{cite press release |title=600&nbsp;year old mystery manuscript decoded by University of Bedfordshire professor |date=14 February 2014 |publisher=[[University of Bedfordshire]] |url=http://www.beds.ac.uk/news/2014/february/600-year-old-mystery-manuscript-decoded-by-university-of-bedfordshire-professor |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=15 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160615200919/http://www.beds.ac.uk/news/2014/february/600-year-old-mystery-manuscript-decoded-by-university-of-bedfordshire-professor |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |last=Bax |first=Stephen |date=1 January 2014 |title=A proposed partial decoding of the Voynich script |website=StephenBax.net |url=http://stephenbax.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Voynich-a-provisional-partial-decoding-BAX.pdf |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=21 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521160342/http://stephenbax.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Voynich-a-provisional-partial-decoding-BAX.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Breakthrough over 600&nbsp;year-old mystery manuscript |date=18 February 2014 |website=[[BBC News Online]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-26198471 |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055622/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-26198471 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=British academic claims to have made a breakthrough in his quest to unlock the 600&nbsp;year-old secrets of the mysterious Voynich manuscript |date=20 February 2014 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/british-academic-claims-to-have-made-a-breakthrough-in-his-quest-to-unlock-the-600yearold-secrets-of-the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-9141484.html |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=25 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925234400/http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/british-academic-claims-to-have-made-a-breakthrough-in-his-quest-to-unlock-the-600yearold-secrets-of-the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-9141484.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
He suggested the text is a treatise on nature written in a natural language, rather than a code,<ref name=Bowern /> but no further work has been done since Bax's death in 2017.<ref name=Rigby-2014-02-18 />

[[Deep learning]] has been proposed as a computing method for analysing language families to which the manuscript's alphabet could be related. In 2023, researchers used deep learning algorithms to demonstrate that, out of a representative sample of seven ancient Indian scripts, the strongest resemblance was to [[Khojki]].<ref name=Zelinka-etal-2022>{{cite journal |last1=Zelinka |first1=Ivan |last2=Lara |first2=Melvin |last3=Windsor |first3=Leah C. |last4=Lozi |first4=René |title=Softcomputing in identiﬁcation of the origin of Voynich manuscript by comparison with ancient dialects |journal=Applied Soft Computing |date=May 2023 |volume=138 |issue=C |doi=10.1016/j.asoc.2023.110217 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369341200 |access-date=19 March 2024|doi-access=free |hdl=10084/152269 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Tucker & Talbert (2014)<ref name=Tucker-Talbert-2014 /> published a paper claiming a positive identification of 37&nbsp;plants, 6&nbsp;animals, and one mineral referenced in the manuscript to plant drawings in the ''[[Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis]]'' or Badianus manuscript, an Aztec [[herbal]] written in 1552.<ref name=Tucker-Talbert-2014>{{cite journal |author1=Tucker, Arthur O. |author2=Talbert, Rexford H. |date=Winter 2013 |title=A preliminary analysis of the botany, zoology, and mineralogy of the Voynich manuscript |journal=HerbalGram |issue=100 |pages=70–75 |url=http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue100/hg100-feat-voynich.html?ts=1390369202&signature=402e6a559a0e56b5343a6f4d002492fa |access-date=8 June 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140122054819/http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue100/hg100-feat-voynich.html?ts=1390369202&signature=402e6a559a0e56b5343a6f4d002492fa |archive-date=22 January 2014 |via=archive.today}}
{{webarchive
 |title=alternate PDF source
 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327075323/http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue100/HG100-voynich-online.pdf
 |date=27 March 2014
|via=Internet Archive (archive.org)
}}</ref>
Together with the presence of [[atacamite]] in the paint, they argue that the plants were from colonial [[New Spain]] and the text represented [[Nahuatl]], the language of the [[Aztecs]]. They date the manuscript to between 1521 (the date of the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire]]) and ''circa'' 1576. These dates contradict the earlier radiocarbon date of the vellum and other elements of the manuscript. However, they argued that the vellum could have been stored and used at a later date. The analysis has been criticised by other Voynich manuscript researchers,<ref>{{cite web |author=Pelling, N. |author-link=Nick Pelling |date=14 January 2014 |title=A brand new new world / Nahuatl Voynich manuscript theory&nbsp;... |website=Cipher Mysteries |url=http://www.ciphermysteries.com/2014/01/21/brand-new-new-world-nahuatl-voynich-manuscript-theory |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=5 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505041854/http://www.ciphermysteries.com/2014/01/21/brand-new-new-world-nahuatl-voynich-manuscript-theory |url-status=live}}</ref>
who argued that a skilled forger could construct plants that coincidentally have a passing resemblance to theretofore undiscovered existing plants.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Grossman |first=Lisa |date=3 February 2014 |title=Mexican plants could break code on gibberish manuscript |magazine=[[New Scientist]] |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24987-mexican-plants-could-break-code-on-gibberish-manuscript.html |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=23 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223044009/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24987-mexican-plants-could-break-code-on-gibberish-manuscript.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
Nahuatl specialist M.P.&nbsp;Hansen has rejected their proposed readings as pure nonsense.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pharao Hansen |first=Magnus |date=25 December 2018 |title=Was the ''Voynich manuscript'' written in Nahuatl? |website=nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com |url=http://nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com/2018/12/was-voynich-manuscript-written-in.html |access-date=17 August 2022|archive-date=7 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707132025/https://nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com/2018/12/was-voynich-manuscript-written-in.html |url-status=live}}
<!-- SPS by an established subject-matter expert, see [[Special:PermaLink/1105792322#Blog source]] --></ref>

=== Constructed language ===
{{See also|Philosophical language}}
The peculiar internal structure of Voynich manuscript words led [[William F. Friedman]] to conjecture that the text could be a [[constructed language]]. In 1950, Friedman asked the British army officer [[John Tiltman]] to analyse a few pages of the text, but Tiltman did not share this conclusion. In a paper in 1967, Brigadier Tiltman said:
{{blockquote|After reading my report, Mr.&nbsp;Friedman disclosed to me his belief that the basis of the script was a very primitive form of synthetic [[universal language]] such as was developed in the form of a philosophical classification of ideas by [[John Wilkins|Bishop Wilkins]] in 1667 and [[George Dalgarno|Dalgarno]] a little later. It was clear that the productions of these two men were much too systematic, and anything of the kind would have been almost instantly recognisable. My analysis seemed to me to reveal a cumbersome mixture of different kinds of substitution.<ref name=Tiltman-1967>{{cite journal |last=Tiltman |first=John H. |date=Summer 1967 |title=The Voynich manuscript: The most mysterious manuscript in the world |journal=NSA Technical Journal |volume=XII |issue=3 |publisher=U.S. [[National Security Agency]] |url=http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/tech_journals/Voynich_Manuscript_Mysterious.pdf |access-date=June 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018025101/https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/tech_journals/Voynich_Manuscript_Mysterious.pdf |archive-date=October 18, 2011}}</ref>}}

The concept of a constructed language is quite old, as attested by [[John Wilkins]]'s ''[[An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language|Philosophical Language]]'' (1668), but still postdates the generally accepted origin of the Voynich manuscript by two centuries. In most known examples, categories are subdivided by adding [[suffix]]es ([[fusional language]]s); as a consequence, a text in a particular subject would have many words with similar prefixes—for example, all plant names would begin with similar letters, and likewise for all diseases, etc. This feature could then explain the repetitive nature of the Voynich text. However, no one has been able yet to assign a plausible meaning to any prefix or suffix in the Voynich manuscript.<ref name="plan">{{harvnb|Kahn|1967|pp=870–871}}</ref>

=== Hoax ===
[[File:Voynich Manuscript (175).jpg|thumb|upright|Page 175; ''f99r'', of the pharmaceutical section]]
[[File:Voynich Manuscript (135).jpg|thumb|upright|Page 135; ''f75r'', from the balneological section showing apparent [[nymphs]]]]

The fact that the manuscript has defied decipherment thus far has led various scholars to propose that the text does not contain meaningful content in the first place, implying that it may be a medieval [[hoax]].

In 2003, computer scientist [[Gordon Rugg]] showed that text with characteristics similar to the Voynich manuscript could have been produced using a table of word prefixes, stems, and suffixes, which would have been selected and combined by means of a perforated paper overlay.<ref>{{cite web |title=Replicating the Voynich Manuscript |publisher=Keele |location=UK |url=http://www.scm.keele.ac.uk/staff/g_rugg/voynich/ |first=Gordon |last=Rugg |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=23 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823155350/http://www.scm.keele.ac.uk/staff/g_rugg/voynich/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=McKie |first=Robin |date=25 January 2004 |title=Secret of historic code: It's gibberish |newspaper=[[The Observer]] |location=UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/25/arts.highereducation |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=23 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423183508/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/25/arts.highereducation |url-status=live}}</ref> The latter device, known as a [[Cardan grille]], was invented around 1550 as an encryption tool, more than 100&nbsp;years after the estimated creation date of the Voynich manuscript. Some maintain that the similarity between the pseudo-texts generated in Gordon Rugg's experiments and the Voynich manuscript is superficial, and the grille method could be used to emulate any language to a certain degree.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=D'Agnese |first=Joseph |date=September 2004 |title=Scientific Method Man |magazine=Wired |url=http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/rugg.html?pg=1 |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=11 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061111224306/http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/rugg.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

In April 2007, a study by Austrian researcher Andreas Schinner published in ''[[Cryptologia]]'' supported the hoax hypothesis.{{sfn|Schinner|2007}} Schinner posited that the statistical properties of the manuscript's text were more consistent with meaningless gibberish produced using a quasi-[[stochastic]] method, such as the one described by Rugg, than with Latin and medieval German texts.{{sfn|Schinner|2007}}

Some scholars have claimed that the manuscript's text appears too sophisticated to be a hoax. In 2013, Marcelo Montemurro, a theoretical physicist from the [[University of Manchester]], published findings claiming that [[semantic network]]s exist in the text of the manuscript, such as content-bearing words occurring in a clustered pattern, or new words being used when there was a shift in topic.<ref>{{harvnb|Montemurro|Zanette|2013|p=e66344}}</ref> With this evidence, he believes it unlikely that these features were intentionally "incorporated" into the text to make a hoax more realistic, as most of the required academic knowledge of these structures did not exist at the time the Voynich manuscript would have been written.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hogenboom |first=Melissa |date=22 June 2013 |title=Mysterious Voynich manuscript has 'genuine message' |website=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22975809 |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=2 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202095442/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22975809 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2021, researchers at [[Yale University]], using the [[tf–idf]] analysis, further investigated the relation between clusters of subjects in the text and topics as they could be identified by illustrations and [[paleography]] analysis. Their conclusion is that clusters derived by computation match with the topics of the illustrations to some degree, thus providing evidence that the Voynich manuscript contains meaningful text.<ref>{{Cite arXiv |last1=Sterneck |first1=Rachel |last2=Polish |first2=Annie |last3=Bowern |first3=Claire |date=2021 |title=Topic Modeling in the Voynich Manuscript |class=cs.CL |eprint=2107.02858}}</ref>

However, other scholars have argued that such sophisticated patterns could also appear in hoaxed documents. In 2016, Gordon Rugg and Gavin Taylor published another article in ''[[Cryptologia]]'' demonstrating that the grille method could reproduce many larger-scale features of the text.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Gordon |last1=Rugg |first2=Gavin |last2=Taylor |title=Hoaxing statistical features of the Voynich Manuscript |date=September 2016 |journal=Cryptologia |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=247–268 |s2cid=5848113 |doi=10.1080/01611194.2016.1206753}}</ref> In 2019, Torsten Timm and Andreas Schinner published a paper arguing that the text was produced by a process of "self-citation" in which scribes copied and modified meaningless words from earlier in the text. Using a computer simulation of this process, they demonstrated that it could reproduce many of the statistical characteristics of the Voynich manuscript.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Torsten |last1=Timm |first2=Andreas |last2=Schinner |title=A possible generating algorithm of the Voynich manuscript |date=May 2019 |journal=Cryptologia |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=1–19 |s2cid=181797693 |doi=10.1080/01611194.2019.1596999}}</ref> In 2022, [[Yale University]] researchers Daniel Gaskell and Claire Bowern published the results of an experiment in which human participants intentionally tried to write meaningless text. They found that the resulting text was often highly non-random and exhibited many of the same unusual statistical properties as the Voynich manuscript, supporting the idea that some features of the text could have been produced in a hoax.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Gaskell |last1=Daniel |first2=Bowern |last2=Claire |title=Gibberish after all? Voynichese is statistically similar to human-produced samples of meaningless text |date=2022 |journal=CEUR Workshop Proceedings |volume=3313 |url=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3313/paper4.pdf |access-date=10 January 2023 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110035222/https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3313/paper4.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Glossolalia ===
[[File:Litterae ignotae.png|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Script invented by Hildegard von Bingen]]
[[File:Voynich-partof f78r.jpg|thumb|right|Detail of the nymphs on page 141; ''f78r'']]
In their 2004 book, Gerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill suggest the possibility that the Voynich manuscript may be a case of [[glossolalia]] (speaking-in-tongues), [[Mediumship|channelling]], or [[outsider art]].<ref name=KennedyChurchill2004>{{harvnb|Kennedy|Churchill|2004|pp=}}</ref> If so, the author felt compelled to write large amounts of text in a manner which resembles [[Stream of consciousness writing|stream of consciousness]], either because of voices heard or because of an urge. This often takes place in an invented language in glossolalia, usually made up of fragments of the author's own language, although invented scripts for this purpose are rare.

Kennedy and Churchill use [[Hildegard von Bingen]]'s works to point out similarities between the Voynich manuscript and the illustrations that she drew when she was suffering from severe bouts of [[migraine]], which can induce a trance-like state prone to glossolalia. Prominent features found in both are abundant "streams of stars", and the repetitive nature of the "[[nymphs]]" in the [[balneological]] section.<ref>{{harvnb|Kennedy|Churchill|2004}}</ref>

The theory is controversial,<ref name=PellingWeb>{{cite web |last=Pelling |first=Nick |date=19 January 2012 |title=Does the "Voynich = migraine" theory make your head hurt too? |url=http://ciphermysteries.com/2012/01/19/does-the-voynich-migraine-theory-make-your-head-hurt-too |access-date=11 June 2016|archive-date=23 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623165715/http://ciphermysteries.com/2012/01/19/does-the-voynich-migraine-theory-make-your-head-hurt-too |url-status=live}}</ref> and it is virtually impossible to prove or disprove it, short of deciphering the text. Kennedy and Churchill are themselves not convinced of the hypothesis, but consider it plausible. In the culminating chapter of their work, Kennedy states his belief that it is a hoax or forgery. Churchill acknowledges the possibility that the manuscript is either a synthetic forgotten language (as advanced by Friedman), or else a forgery, as the preeminent theory. However, he concludes that, if the manuscript is a genuine creation, mental illness or delusion seems to have affected the author.<ref name="KennedyChurchill2004" />

== Decipherment claims ==
Since the manuscript's modern rediscovery in 1912, there have been a number of claimed decipherings.

=== William Romaine Newbold ===
One of the earliest efforts to decode the book's code was made in 1921 by [[William Romaine Newbold]] from the [[University of Pennsylvania]]. His singular hypothesis held that the visible text is meaningless, but that each apparent "letter" is in fact constructed of a series of tiny markings discernible only under [[magnification]]. These markings were supposed to be based on [[ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] [[shorthand]], forming a second level of script that held the real content of the writing. Newbold claimed to have used this knowledge to work out entire paragraphs proving the authorship of Bacon and recording his use of a [[compound microscope]] four hundred years before [[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek|van Leeuwenhoek]]. A circular drawing in the astronomical section depicts an irregularly shaped object with four curved arms, which Newbold interpreted as a picture of a galaxy, which could be obtained only with a [[telescope]].<ref name=Tiltman-1967 />

Newbold's analysis has since been dismissed as overly speculative<ref>{{cite web |title=William Romaine Newbold (1865–1926) |series=Penn Biographies |date=6 September 1926 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]] |url=http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1800s/newbold_wm_romaine.html |access-date=8 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419231850/http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1800s/newbold_wm_romaine.html |archive-date=19 April 2016}}</ref> after [[John Matthews Manly]] of the [[University of Chicago]] pointed out{{when|date=November 2024}} serious flaws in his theory. For example, each shorthand character was assumed to have multiple interpretations, and as a result there was no reliable way to determine which was intended for any given case. Newbold's method also required rearranging letters at will until intelligible [[Latin language|Latin]] was produced. These factors alone ensure the system enough flexibility that nearly anything at all could be discerned from the [[microscopic]] markings. Although evidence of [[micrography]] using the [[Hebrew language]] can be traced as far back as the ninth century, it is nowhere near as compact or complex as the shapes Newbold made out. Close study of the manuscript revealed the markings to be artefacts caused by the way ink cracks as it dries on rough vellum. Perceiving significance in these artefacts can be attributed to [[pareidolia]]. Thanks to Manly's thorough refutation, the micrography theory is now generally disregarded.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kahn|1967|pp=867–869}}</ref>

=== Joseph Martin Feely ===
In 1943, Joseph Martin Feely published ''Roger Bacon's Cipher: The Right Key Found'', in which he claimed that the book was a scientific diary written by Roger Bacon. Feely's method posited that the text was a highly abbreviated medieval Latin written in a simple [[substitution cipher]].<ref name=D-Imperio-1978 />

=== Leonell C. Strong ===
[[Leonell C. Strong]], a cancer research scientist and amateur cryptographer, claimed that the solution to the Voynich manuscript was a "peculiar double system of arithmetical progressions of a multiple alphabet". Strong published a translation of two pages in 1947, and claimed that the [[plaintext]] revealed the Voynich manuscript to be written by the 16th-century English author [[Anthony Ascham (author)|Anthony Ascham]], whose works include ''A Little Herbal'', published in 1550. Notes released after his death reveal that the last stages of his analysis, in which he selected words to combine into phrases, were questionably subjective.<ref name=Winter-2015>{{cite book |last=Winter |first=Jay |year=2015 |title=The Complete Voynich Manuscript |edition=digitally enhanced researchers' |publisher=Lulu Press |isbn=978-1-329-60774-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FjnPCgAAQBAJ&q=dee+selling+manuscript+bacon&pg=PA249 |access-date=9 June 2016}}{{dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>{{rp|page=252}}

=== Robert S. Brumbaugh ===
In 1978, [[Robert Brumbaugh]], a professor of classical and medieval philosophy at Yale University, claimed that the manuscript was a forgery intended to fool Emperor Rudolf II into purchasing it, and that the text is Latin enciphered with a complex, two-step method.<ref name=D-Imperio-1978 />

=== John Stojko ===
In 1978, John Stojko published ''Letters to God's Eye'',<ref>{{harvnb|Stojko|1978}}</ref> in which he claimed that the Voynich Manuscript was a series of letters written in vowelless [[Ukrainian (language)|Ukrainian]].<ref name=Zandbergen-solvers>{{cite web |last=Zandbergen |first=René |title=Voynich MS – History of research of the MS |website=Voynich.nu |url=http://www.voynich.nu/solvers.html |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=10 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610164010/http://www.voynich.nu/solvers.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The theory caused some sensation among the Ukrainian diaspora at the time, and then in independent [[Ukraine]] after 1991.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Олена [Elena] |last=Русина [Rusina] |year=2011–2014 |script-title=uk:До "неможливих джерел" вітчизняної історії: ''Рукопис Войнича'' в українському контексті |trans-title=On the "impossible sources" of national history: The ''Voynich manuscript'' in the Ukrainian context |journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies |volume=32–33 |issue=Part&nbsp;2 |pages=611–618 |jstor=24711694 |language=Ukrainian}}</ref> However, the date Stojko gives for the letters, the lack of relation between the text and the images, and the general looseness in the method of decryption have all been criticised.<ref name=Zandbergen-solvers />

=== Stephen Bax ===
In January 2014, applied linguistics Professor Stephen Bax self-published a paper proposing a "provisional, partial decoding" of the Voynich Manuscript, proposing a translation for ten proper nouns and fourteen letters from the manuscript using techniques similar to those used to successfully translate [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]].<ref name=Bax2014>{{cite web |last1=Bax |first1=Stephen |date=January 2014 |title=A proposed partial decoding of the Voynich script |url=http://stephenbax.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Voynich-a-provisional-partial-decoding-BAX.pdf |access-date=20 February 2014 |archive-date=21 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521160342/http://stephenbax.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Voynich-a-provisional-partial-decoding-BAX.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> He claimed the manuscript to be a treatise on nature, in a Near Eastern or Asian language, but no full translation was made before Bax's death in November 2017.<ref name=Rigby-2014-02-18>{{Cite news |last=Rigby |first=Nic |date=18 February 2014 |website=BBC News |title=Breakthrough over 600&nbsp;year-old mystery manuscript |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-26198471 |access-date=4 January 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055622/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-26198471 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Greg Kondrak ===
Greg Kondrak, a professor of natural language processing at the [[University of Alberta]], and his graduate student Bradley Hauer used [[computational linguistics]] in an attempt to decode the manuscript.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Artificial intelligence takes a crack at decoding the mysterious Voynich manuscript |magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]] |date=31 January 2018 |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artificial-intelligence-takes-crack-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-180967983/ |access-date=2 February 2018 |archive-date=3 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203064107/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artificial-intelligence-takes-crack-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-180967983/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Their findings were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics in August 2017 in the form of an article suggesting that the manuscript's language is most likely [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], but encoded using alphagrams, i.e. alphabetically ordered [[anagram]]s. However, the team admitted that experts in medieval manuscripts who reviewed the work were not convinced.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mysterious-manuscript-decoded-computer-scientists-ai-a8180951.html |title=Mysterious 15th century manuscript finally decoded 600 years later |date=27 January 2018 |work=The Independent|access-date=27 January 2018|archive-date=27 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127184629/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mysterious-manuscript-decoded-computer-scientists-ai-a8180951.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hauer |first1=Bradley |last2=Kondrak |first2=Grzegorz |year=2016 |title=Decoding anagrammed texts written in an unknown language and script |journal=Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics |volume=4 |pages=75–86 |doi=10.1162/tacl_a_00084 |doi-access = free |url=https://transacl.org/ojs/index.php/tacl/article/view/821 |access-date = 27 January 2018 |archive-date = 28 January 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180128132541/https://transacl.org/ojs/index.php/tacl/article/view/821 |url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Computer scientist claims clues to deciphering mysterious Voynich manuscript |newspaper=[[The National Post]] |date=24 January 2018 |url=https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/computer-scientist-claims-clues-to-deciphering-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-2 |access-date=27 January 2019 |archive-date=13 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113081130/https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/computer-scientist-claims-clues-to-deciphering-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-2 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Nicholas Gibbs ===
In September 2017, television writer Nicholas Gibbs claimed to have decoded the manuscript as idiosyncratically abbreviated Latin.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Nicholas |last=Gibbs |date=5 September 2017 |title=Voynich manuscript: the solution |website=The Times Literary Supplement |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/voynich-manuscript-solution/ |access-date=10 September 2017|archive-date=11 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911003105/https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/voynich-manuscript-solution/ |url-status=live}}</ref> He declared the manuscript to be a mostly plagiarised guide to women's health.<ref name=":1" /> Scholars would go on to criticise Gibbs for patching together already-existing scholarship with a highly speculative and incorrect translation; Lisa Fagin Davis, director of the [[Medieval Academy of America]], stated that Gibbs' decipherment "doesn't result in Latin that makes sense."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Has a Mysterious Medieval Code Really Been Solved? |date=10 September 2017 |last=Zhang |first=Sarah |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/09/has-the-voynich-manuscript-really-been-solved/539310/ |access-date=12 September 2017 |lang=en-US |archive-date=12 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912142316/https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/09/has-the-voynich-manuscript-really-been-solved/539310/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Davis added that she was "surprised the [[The Times Literary Supplement|TLS]] published it."<ref>{{cite news |last=Newitz |first=Annalee |date=10 September 2017 |title=So much for that Voynich manuscript "solution" |language=en-us |work=Ars Technica |url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/experts-are-extremely-dubious-about-the-voynich-solution/ |access-date=12 September 2017 |archive-date=11 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911234813/https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/experts-are-extremely-dubious-about-the-voynich-solution/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Other researchers concurred.<ref name=":2" />

=== Ahmet Ardıç ===
In February 2018, Ahmet Ardıç, a [[Turkish Canadian]] electrical engineer with an interest in [[Turkic languages|Turkic linguistics]], claimed that the manuscript is written in a language variety derived from [[Old Turkic]].<ref name="Metro2018">{{cite web|url=http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgary/2018/02/27/calgary-engineer-believes-he-s-cracked-the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript.html |title=Calgary man believes he's cracked the mysterious Voynich Manuscript |newspaper=[[StarMetro (newspaper)|Toronto Metro]] |agency=[[The Canadian Press]] |date=28 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305131142/http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgary/2018/02/27/calgary-engineer-believes-he-s-cracked-the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript.html |archive-date=5 March 2018}}</ref><ref name="Milliyet2018">{{cite web|url=https://www.milliyet.com.tr/gundem/bu-kitabin-sirri-600-yildir-cozulemiyor-2630390 |title=Bu kitabın sırrı 600 yıldır çözülemiyor |newspaper=[[Milliyet]] |agency=[[İhlas News Agency]] |date=19 March 2018 |accessdate=13 November 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=22 February 2018 |title=Voynich Manuscript Revealed (2018) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6keMgLmFEk | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211104/p6keMgLmFEk| archive-date=4 November 2021 | url-status=live |website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The text was written using "[[phonemic orthography]]", meaning the manuscript's author spelled out words as they were heard phonetically.<ref name="CNN2018">{{Cite web |first=Jane |last=Bracher |title=Will mystery of the medieval Voynich Manuscript ever be solved? |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/15/health/voynich-manuscript-mystery/index.html |access-date=14 July 2020 |website=CNN |date=15 June 2018|archive-date=14 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714070206/https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/15/health/voynich-manuscript-mystery/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=21 February 2019 |title=Has the Voynich Manuscript Finally Been Decoded?: Researchers Claim That the Mysterious Text Was Written in Phonetic Old Turkish |url=http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/has-the-voynich-manuscript-finally-been-decoded.html |access-date=14 July 2020 |website=Open Culture |archive-date=14 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714041107/http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/has-the-voynich-manuscript-finally-been-decoded.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Ardıç began deciphering the manuscript four years earlier with the help of his two sons. "Ahmet noticed that the words in the book appeared to be built of repetitive [[Root (linguistics)|roots]] with prefixes and suffixes added. It reminded him of his native Turkish [...] At first he found seven characters that were the same as Old Turkic, and slowly the language revealed itself [...] Other illustrations allowed them to match up Old Turkic words with the images pictured", reported [[The Canadian Press]].<ref name="Metro2018"/> Ardıç's team claimed to have deciphered and translated at least {{nowrap|300 words}} "and is confident there is now sufficient vocabulary to read at least 30% of the manuscript."<ref name="Milliyet2018"/><ref name="CNN2018"/> His submission to the journal ''Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures'' was rejected in 2019.<ref>{{cite AV media |title=Voynich Manuscript: Update and Q&A |date=1 August 2019 |medium=video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTTRsrzndTY | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211104/tTTRsrzndTY| archive-date=4 November 2021 | url-status=live |via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Gerard Cheshire ===
In May 2019, Gerard Cheshire, a biology research assistant at the [[University of Bristol]], claimed that the manuscript is written in a "calligraphic proto-Romance" language. He claimed to have deciphered the manuscript in two weeks using a combination of "lateral thinking and ingenuity."<ref>{{cite web |title=Bristol academic cracks Voynich code, solving century-old mystery of medieval text |date=May 2019 |website=EurekAlert |url=https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-05/uob-bac051419.php |access-date=16 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190515121010/https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-05/uob-bac051419.php |archive-date=15 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Cheshire |first=Gerard |year=2019 |title=The language and writing system of MS&nbsp;408 (Voynich) explained |journal=[[Romance Studies (journal)|Romance Studies]] |volume=37 |pages=30–67 |doi=10.1080/02639904.2019.1599566 |s2cid=166780758 |hdl=1983/a6f1af84-f023-405a-b1e8-448c01ef0673 |url=https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/201563069/Full_text_PDF_accepted_author_manuscript_.pdf |hdl-access=free |access-date=27 August 2021 |archive-date=28 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928040011/https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/201563069/Full_text_PDF_accepted_author_manuscript_.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Cheshire has suggested that the manuscript is "a compendium of information on herbal remedies, therapeutic bathing, and astrological readings"; that it contains numerous descriptions of medicinal plants<ref>{{Cite web |first=Gerard E. |last=Cheshire |date=January 2020 |title=Plant Series, No. 6. Manuscript MS&nbsp;408. ''Andromeda polifolia'' |url=https://www.academia.edu/41594847 |access-date=13 May 2020 |via=academia.edu |archive-date=30 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530161530/https://www.academia.edu/41594847 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Plant Series, No. 8. Manuscript MS&nbsp;408. ''Paris quadrifolia'' |first=Gerard E. |last=Cheshire |date=April 2020 |via=academia.edu |url=https://www.academia.edu/42787693 |access-date=13 May 2020|archive-date=13 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113081158/https://www.academia.edu/42787693/Plant_Series_No_8_Manuscript_MS408_Paris_quadrifolia |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |first=Gerard E. |last=Cheshire |date=June 2020 |title=Plant Series, No. 9. Manuscript MS&nbsp;408. ''Erodium malacoides'' |journal=Submitted |url=https://www.academia.edu/43403558 |access-date=13 May 2020 |via=academia.edu |archive-date=13 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113081129/https://www.academia.edu/43403558/Plant_Series_No_9_Manuscript_MS408_Erodium_malacoides |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |first=Gerard E. |last=Cheshire |date=June 2020 |title=Plant Series, No. 10. Manuscript MS&nbsp;408. ''Crepis vesicaria'' |journal=Submitted |via=academia.edu |url=https://www.academia.edu/43403603 |access-date=13 May 2020|archive-date=13 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113081143/https://www.academia.edu/43403603/Plant_Series_No_10_Manuscript_MS408_Crepis_vesicaria |url-status=live}}</ref> and passages that focus on female physical and mental health, reproduction, and parenting; and that the manuscript is the only known text written in [[proto-Romance]].<ref name="guardian20190516">{{cite news |first=Esther |last=Addley |date=16 May 2019 |title=Latin, Hebrew, ... proto-Romance? New theory on Voynich manuscript |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/16/latin-hebrew-proto-romance-new-theory-on-voynich-manuscript |access-date= 16 May 2019 |archive-date= 16 May 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190516000844/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/16/latin-hebrew-proto-romance-new-theory-on-voynich-manuscript |url-status= live}}</ref> He further claimed: "The manuscript was compiled by Dominican nuns as a source of reference for [[Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon]]."<ref name="bbc160519">{{cite news |title=Medieval manuscript code 'unlocked' by Bristol academic |date=16 May 2019 |website=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-48284012 |access-date= 16 May 2019 |archive-date= 16 May 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190516080658/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-48284012 |url-status= live}}</ref>

In June 2023, Cheshire published his translation of the foldout illustration on page 158.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cheshire |first=Gerard |date=May 2023 |title=The Medieval Map and the Mercy Mission: A Complete Translation of the Voynich Manuscript Map |publisher=Gerard Cheshire |isbn=978-1-399-95499-0}}<br/>{{cite web |title=Facsimile of volcano map in Voynich manuscript |page=158 |url=https://archive.org/details/voynich/158.jpg |access-date=16 June 2021}}</ref>
He claims that it depicts a volcano, and theorises that it places the manuscript's creators near the island of [[Vulcano]] which was an active volcano during the 15th century.<ref>{{cite web |title=Consonants & Vowels, Castles & Volcanoes. - lingbuzz/004381. |date=December 2018 |access-date=16 June 2021 |url=https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004381 |last1=Cheshire |first1=Gerard |archive-date=8 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608214758/https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004381 |url-status=live}}</ref> However, experts in medieval documents disputed this interpretation vigorously.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=No, someone hasn't cracked the code of the mysterious Voynich manuscript |last=Ouellette |first=Jennifer |date=15 May 2019 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-us |url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/no-someone-hasnt-cracked-the-code-of-the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript/ |access-date=17 May 2019 |archive-date=17 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517012318/https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/no-someone-hasnt-cracked-the-code-of-the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Approached for comment, Lisa Fagin Davis gave this explanation:

{{Blockquote
|text=As with most would-be Voynich interpreters, the logic of this proposal is circular and aspirational: he starts with a theory about what a particular series of glyphs might mean, usually because of the word's proximity to an image that he believes he can interpret. He then investigates any number of medieval Romance-language dictionaries until he finds a word that seems to suit his theory. Then he argues that because he has found a Romance-language word that fits his hypothesis, his hypothesis must be right. His "translations" from what is essentially gibberish, an amalgam of multiple languages, are themselves aspirational rather than being actual translations. |source=15 May 2019, ''[[Ars Technica]]''.<ref name=":0" />}}

The University of Bristol subsequently removed a reference to Cheshire's claims from its website,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Statement re: Voynich research paper |website=www.bristol.ac.uk |publisher=[[University of Bristol]] |language=en-GB |url=http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2019/may/voynich-manuscript.html |access-date=22 May 2019 |archive-date=21 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190521132852/http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2019/may/voynich-manuscript.html |url-status=live}}</ref> referring, in a statement, to concerns about the validity of the research and stating: "This research was entirely the author's own work and is not affiliated with the University of Bristol, the School of Arts nor the Centre for Medieval Studies".<ref>{{cite web |title=Voynich manuscript translation claims raise 'concerns' |date=17 May 2019 |website=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-48309665 |access-date=17 May 2019|archive-date=16 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616070720/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-48309665 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Tristan |last=Cork |date=17 May 2019 |title=University withdraws announcement researcher had cracked the Voynich Manuscript |website=Bristol Live |url=https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/voynich-manuscript-cracked-university-claim-2878183 |access-date=17 May 2019|archive-date=17 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517142929/https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/voynich-manuscript-cracked-university-claim-2878183 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Facsimiles ==
Many books and articles have been written about the manuscript. Copies of the manuscript pages were made by alchemist [[Georg Baresch]] in 1637 and sent to Athanasius Kircher, and later by Wilfrid Voynich.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Clemens |editor-first=Raymond |year=2016 |title=The Voynich Manuscript |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-21723-0}}</ref>

In 2004, the [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]] made high-resolution digital scans publicly available online, and several printed facsimiles appeared. In 2016, the Beinecke Library and Yale University Press co-published a facsimile, ''The Voynich Manuscript'', with scholarly essays.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dunavin |first=Davis |date=14 October 2016 |title=Yale publishes mysterious medieval manuscript |publisher=NPR – WSHU |url=http://wshu.org/post/yale-publishes-mysterious-medieval-manuscript |access-date=21 October 2016|archive-date=22 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022095655/http://wshu.org/post/yale-publishes-mysterious-medieval-manuscript |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Beinecke Library also authorised the production of a print run of 898 replicas by the Spanish publisher Siloé in 2017.<ref>{{cite news |title=Publisher wins rights to Voynich manuscript, a book no one can read |date=21 August 2016 |agency=Agence France-Presse |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/21/tiny-spanish-publisher-wins-rights-voynich-manuscript-book-no-one-can-read |access-date=21 October 2016|archive-date=23 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823013118/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/21/tiny-spanish-publisher-wins-rights-voynich-manuscript-book-no-one-can-read |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=El Manuscrito Voynich de Siloé llega a Emiratos Árabes |date=11 November 2017 |website=burgosconecta.es |url=https://www.burgosconecta.es/burgos/manuscrito-voynich-siloe-20171111125921-nt.html |access-date=12 November 2017 |language=es |archive-date=13 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113003324/https://www.burgosconecta.es/burgos/manuscrito-voynich-siloe-20171111125921-nt.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

In September 2024, [[Multispectral imaging|multispectral scans]] of ten selected pages were made public, revealing details unseen with visible light.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/new-multispectral-analysis-of-voynich-manuscript-reveals-hidden-details/ |work= [[Ars Technica]] |title= New multispectral analysis of Voynich manuscript reveals hidden details |first= Jennifer |last= Ouellette |date= 2024-09-09 |access-date= 2024-09-18}}</ref>

== Cultural influence ==
{{This section needs expansion|date=December 2024}}
The manuscript has inspired various works of fiction, including:
{|class="wikitable"
! Author(s)
!align="center";| Year
!align="left";| Title
|-
|[[Max McCoy]]
|align="center";| 1995
|''[[Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone]]''
|-
| [[Lev Grossman]]
|align="center";| 2004
| ''[[Codex (novel)|Codex]]''
|-
| [[Scarlett Thomas]]
|align="center";| 2004
| ''[[PopCo]]''
|-
| [[Alex Scarrow]]
|align="center";| 2011
| [[TimeRiders#TimeRiders: The Doomsday Code|''Time Riders: The Doomsday Code'']]
|-
| [[Linda Sue Park]]
|align="center";| 2012
| [[The 39 Clues#Trust No One|''Trust No One'']]
|-
| [[Dominic Selwood]]
|align="center";| 2013
| [[The Sword of Moses (novel)|''The Sword of Moses'']]
|-
| [[Deborah Harkness]]
|align="center";| 2014
| [[The Book of Life (Harkness novel)|''The Book of Life'']]
|-
| [[Mircea Cartarescu]]
|align="center";| 2015
|''[[Solenoid (novel)|Solenoid]]''<ref>{{cite news |date=26 August 2016 |last=Tronaru |first=Doinel |title=Misteriosul manuscris Voynich, unul dintre pilonii romanului "Solenoid" al lui Mircea Cărtărescu, va fi reprodus de o editură din Spania |url=https://adevarul.ro/cultura/carti/misteriosul-manuscris-voynich-unul-pilonii-romanului-solenoid-mircea-cartarescu-reprodus-editura-spania-video-1_57c070a95ab6550cb81e6199/index.html |website=Adevarul (in Romanian) |access-date=13 January 2020|archive-date=13 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200113043758/https://adevarul.ro/cultura/carti/misteriosul-manuscris-voynich-unul-pilonii-romanului-solenoid-mircea-cartarescu-reprodus-editura-spania-video-1_57c070a95ab6550cb81e6199/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
|Alice Franklin
|2025
|Life Hacks for a Little Alien
|}

*Between 1976 and 1978,<ref>{{cite web |last=Corrias |first=Pino |title=L'enciclopedia dell'altro mondo |website=[[La Repubblica]] |date=5 February 2006 |page=39 |language=it |url=http://download.repubblica.it/pdf/domenica/2006/05022006.pdf |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=9 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709062753/http://download.repubblica.it/pdf/domenica/2006/05022006.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Italian artist [[Luigi Serafini (artist)|Luigi Serafini]] created the ''[[Codex Seraphinianus]]'' containing [[False writing system|false writing]] and pictures of imaginary plants in a style reminiscent of the Voynich manuscript.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books/msg/25e55b7771903c1d?rnum=1 |work=rec.arts.books |title=Codex Seraphinianus |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=10 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110160448/http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books/msg/25e55b7771903c1d?rnum=1 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.math.bas.bg/~iad/serafin.html |title=Codex Seraphinianus: Some Observations |publisher=Bas |location=Bulgaria |date=29 September 2004|access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=28 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128221832/http://www.math.bas.bg/~iad/serafin.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Berloquin |first=Pierre |year=2008 |title=Hidden Codes & Grand Designs: Secret languages from ancient times to modern day |page=300 |publisher=Sterling |isbn=978-1-4027-2833-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/hiddencodesgrand0000berl |url-access=registration |access-date=8 June 2016 |quote=Codex Seraphinianus+base 21.}}</ref>
*Contemporary classical composer [[Hanspeter Kyburz]]'s 1995 chamber work ''The Voynich Cipher Manuscript, for chorus & ensemble'' is inspired by the manuscript.<ref>{{cite news |last=Griffiths |first=Paul |date=18 November 2001 |title=A Metaphor, Powerful and Poetic |series=Music |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/18/arts/music-a-metaphor-powerful-and-poetic.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=23 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423070943/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/18/arts/music-a-metaphor-powerful-and-poetic.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
*In 2015, the [[New Haven Symphony Orchestra]] commissioned [[Hannah Lash]] to compose a symphony inspired by the manuscript.<ref>{{cite news |last=Amarante |first=Joe |date=23 September 2016 |series=Music |title=New Haven Symphony readies a dramatic opener with Lash & Yukashev |url=http://www.nhregister.com/arts-and-entertainment/20160923/new-haven-symphony-readies-a-dramatic-opener-with-lash-amp-yukashev |website=New Haven Register |access-date=20 October 2016|archive-date=21 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021135159/http://www.nhregister.com/arts-and-entertainment/20160923/new-haven-symphony-readies-a-dramatic-opener-with-lash-amp-yukashev |url-status=live}}</ref>
*For the 500th strip of the webcomic ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'', published 29 July 2013, writer Oliver Knörzer and artist Puri Andini created ''The Book of Woo'', four illustrated pages inspired by the Voynich manuscript.<ref>{{cite web |last=Knörzer |first=Oliver |date=29 July 2013 |title=[500] The Book Of Woo |url=http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2013/07/29/0500-the-book-of-woo/|access-date=10 August 2013 |work=Sandra and Woo|archive-date=2 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130802122343/http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2013/07/29/0500-the-book-of-woo/|url-status=live}}</ref> All four pages show strange illustrations next to a cipher text. The strip was mentioned in [[MTV Geek]] and discussed in the ''Cipher Mysteries'' blog of [[cryptology]] expert [[Nick Pelling]] as well as ''Klausis Krypto Kolumne'' of cryptology expert {{ill|Klaus Schmeh|de}}.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kleefeld |first=Sean |date=3 August 2013 |title=Top 5 Webcomics That You Missed This Week: 'xkcd,' 'A Softer World' And More |url=http://geek-news.mtv.com/2013/08/03/top-5-webcomics-a-softer-world-a-girl-and-her-fed/|access-date=10 August 2013 |work=MTV Geek|archive-date=21 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821022011/http://geek-news.mtv.com/2013/08/03/top-5-webcomics-a-softer-world-a-girl-and-her-fed/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Pelling |first=Nick |date=29 July 2013 |title=Sandra And Woo do the Voynich… The Book of Woo! |url=http://www.ciphermysteries.com/2013/07/29/sandra-and-woo-do-the-voynich-the-book-of-woo|access-date=10 August 2013 |work=Cipher Mysteries|archive-date=2 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130802140506/http://www.ciphermysteries.com/2013/07/29/sandra-and-woo-do-the-voynich-the-book-of-woo|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Schmeh |first=Klaus |date=11 August 2013 |title=Verschlüsselungsrätsel als Kunst: Das Buch des Woo |language=de |url=http://scienceblogs.de/klausis-krypto-kolumne/2013/08/11/verschlusselungsratsel-als-kunst-das-buch-des-woo/|access-date=11 August 2013 |work=Klausis Krypto Kolumne|archive-date=13 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013232213/http://scienceblogs.de/klausis-krypto-kolumne/2013/08/11/verschlusselungsratsel-als-kunst-das-buch-des-woo/|url-status=live}}</ref> ''The Book of Woo'' was also discussed in the 2017 book ''Unsolved!'' by {{ill|Craig P. Bauer|de}}, about the history of famous ciphers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bauer |first=Craig P. |title=Unsolved!: the history and mystery of the world's greatest ciphers from ancient Egypt to online secret societies |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-691-16767-1 |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |oclc=963914459}}</ref> As part of the lead-up to the 1,000th strip, Knörzer posted the translated English text on 28 June 2018,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Knörzer |first=Oliver |title=Sandra and Woo » [0500] The Book of Woo in English {{!}} The comedy webcomic|url=http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2018/06/28/0500-the-book-of-woo-in-english/|access-date=14 July 2018|website=www.sandraandwoo.com|language=en-US|archive-date=15 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715011332/http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2018/06/28/0500-the-book-of-woo-in-english/|url-status=live}}</ref> revealing the crucial [[obfuscation]] involved translating the plain text into the [[constructed language]] [[Toki Pona]].

== See also ==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=18em|
* [[Asemic writing]]
* [[Automatic writing]]
* [[Beale ciphers]]
* [[Book of Soyga]]
* [[Codex Gigas]]
* [[Codex Seraphinianus]]
* [[Copiale cipher]]
* [[Fictional language]]
* [[Oera Linda Book]]
* [[Rohonc Codex]]
* [[Rongorongo]]
* [[Undeciphered writing systems]]
* [[Vinland Map]]
* [[James Hampton (artist)#St. James: The Book of the 7 Dispensation|St. James: The Book of the 7 Dispensation]]
}}

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{reflist|25em}}

=== Bibliography ===
<!-- Books and scientific journals/publications (like the text by Shailor), separate the amateur analysis, news websites and others for the References list or external links. -->
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Amancio |first1=Diego R. |last2=Altmann |first2=Eduardo G. |last3=Rybski |first3=Diego |last4=Oliveira |first4=Osvaldo N. Jr. |last5=Costa |first5=Luciano da F. |date=July 2013 |title=Probing the statistical properties of unknown texts: Application to the Voynich manuscript |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=95–107 |arxiv=1303.0347 |doi=10.1080/01611190601133539 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...867310A |pmid=23844002 |pmc=3699599 |url=http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067310 |access-date = 8 June 2016|archive-date = 29 November 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141129101813/http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067310 |url-status = live}}
* {{cite thesis |last=Banks |first=Michael J. |date=5 May 2008 |title=A Search-Based Tool for the Automated Cryptoanalysis of Classical Ciphers |degree=M.Eng. |publisher=[[University of York]] |url=http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~mbanks/pub/mjb503_report.pdf |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305223855/http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~mbanks/pub/mjb503_report.pdf |archive-date=5 March 2012}}
* {{cite web |last=Barabe |first=Joseph G. |date=1 April 2009 |title=Materials Analysis of the Voynich Manuscript |publisher=Beinecke Library (McCrone Associates) |url=https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/voynich_analysis.pdf |access-date=15 August 2019|archive-date=15 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815075854/https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/voynich_analysis.pdf |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Berloquin |first=Pierre |year=2008 |title=Hidden Codes & Grand Designs: Secret languages from ancient times to modern day |publisher=Sterling |isbn=978-1-4027-2833-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/hiddencodesgrand0000berl/page/n6 1–384] |url=https://archive.org/details/hiddencodesgrand0000berl |url-access=registration |access-date=8 June 2016 |quote=Codex Seraphinianus+base 21.}}
* {{cite book |last=Brumbaugh |first=Robert S. |year=1978 |title=The World's Most Mysterious Manuscript |publisher=[[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-8093-0808-8}}
* {{cite journal |last=Child |first=James R. |date=Summer 1976 |title=The Voynich manuscript revisited |volume=XXI |issue=3 |journal=NSA Technical Journal}}
* {{cite book |last=D'Imperio |first=M.E. |author-link=Mary D'Imperio |year=1978 |title=The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a070618.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927074208/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a070618.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=27 September 2020 |publisher=National Security Agency |access-date=1 February 2021}}; {{cite book |ref=none |last=D'Imperio |first=M.E. |author-link=Mary D'Imperio |year=1978 |title=The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma |location=Laguna Hills, CA |publisher=Aegean Park Press |isbn=978-0-89412-038-1}} (Books Express Publishing, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-78039-009-3}})
* {{cite journal |last=Grossman |first=Lisa |date=3 February 2014 |title=Mexican plants could break code on gibberish manuscript |journal=[[New Scientist]] |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24987-mexican-plants-could-break-code-on-gibberish-manuscript.html |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=23 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223044009/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24987-mexican-plants-could-break-code-on-gibberish-manuscript.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite journal |last=Guzy |first=Stefan |date=2022 |title=Book Transactions of Emperor Rudolf II, 1576–1612: New Findings on the Earliest Ownership of the Voynich Manuscript |journal=CEUR Workshop Proceedings |volume=3313 |url=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3313/paper16.pdf |access-date=10 January 2023|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110035236/https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3313/paper16.pdf |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Kahn |first=David |year=1967 |title=The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing |edition=1st |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/codebreakerssto00kahn |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/codebreakerssto00kahn/page/870 870–871]}}
* {{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Gerry |last2=Churchill |first2=Rob |date=14 January 2011 |title=The Voynich Manuscript: The mysterious code that has defied interpretation for centuries |publisher=Inner Traditions International, Limited |isbn=978-1-59477-854-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRiNsvWPGcMC&pg=PA12 |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=18 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318210333/https://books.google.com/books?id=qRiNsvWPGcMC&pg=PA12 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Gerry |last2=Churchill |first2=Rob |year=2004 |title=The Voynich Manuscript |location=London, UK |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-0-7528-5996-5}}
* {{cite journal |last=Landini |first=Gabriel |date=October 2001 |title=Evidence of linguistic structure in the Voynich manuscript using spectral analysis |journal=[[Cryptologia]] |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=275–295 |doi=10.1080/0161-110191889932 |s2cid=28332554}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Montemurro |first1=Marcelo A. |last2=Zanette |first2=Damián H. |date=20 June 2013 |title=Keywords and Co-Occurrence Patterns in the Voynich Manuscript: An Information-Theoretic Analysis |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=e66344 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0066344 |pmid=23805215 |pmc=3689824 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...866344M|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last=Pelling |first=Nicholas John |year=2006 |title=The Curse of the Voynich: The secret history of the world's most mysterious manuscript |publisher=Compelling Press |isbn=978-0-9553160-0-5}}
* {{cite journal |last=Schinner |first=Andreas |date=April 2007 |title=The Voynich manuscript: Evidence of the hoax hypothesis |journal=[[Cryptologia]] |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=95–107 |issn=0161-1194 |doi=10.1080/01611190601133539 |s2cid=20016840}}
* {{cite book |last=Schuster |first=John |year=2009 |title=Haunting Museums |pages=175–272 |publisher=Tom Doherty Associates |isbn=978-1-4299-5919-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBvnz9i0h8sC&pg=PA175 |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-date=18 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318210450/https://books.google.com/books?id=mBvnz9i0h8sC&pg=PA175#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}
* {{cite web |last=Shailor |first=Barbara A. |title=Beinecke MS 408 |department=[[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]], General Collection of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts |publisher=[[Yale University]] |url=http://brbl-net.library.yale.edu/pre1600ms/docs/pre1600.ms408.htm |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911161941/http://brbl-net.library.yale.edu/pre1600ms/docs/pre1600.ms408.htm |archive-date=11 September 2013}}
* {{cite book |last=Stojko |first=John |year=1978 |title=Letters to God's Eye: The Voynich manuscript for the first time deciphered and translated into English |publisher=Vantage Press |location=New York}}
* {{cite journal |last=Tiltman |first=John H. |date=Summer 1967 |title=The Voynich manuscript: The most mysterious manuscript in the world |journal=NSA Technical Journal |volume=XII |issue=3 |publisher=National Security Agency |url=http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/tech_journals/Voynich_Manuscript_Mysterious.pdf |access-date=8 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018025101/https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/tech_journals/Voynich_Manuscript_Mysterious.pdf |archive-date=18 October 2011}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Tucker |first1=Arthur O. |last2=Talbert |first2=Rexford H. |date=Winter 2013 |title=A preliminary analysis of the botany, zoology, and mineralogy of the Voynich manuscript |journal=HerbalGram |issue=100 |pages=70–75 |url=http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue100/hg100-feat-voynich.html?ts=1390369202&signature=402e6a559a0e56b5343a6f4d002492fa |access-date = 8 June 2016|archive-url = https://archive.today/20140122054819/http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue100/hg100-feat-voynich.html?ts=1390369202&signature=402e6a559a0e56b5343a6f4d002492fa |archive-date = 22 January 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Winter |first=Jay |year=2015 |title=The Complete Voynich Manuscript |edition=digitally enhanced researchers' |publisher=Lulu Press |isbn=978-1-329-60774-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FjnPCgAAQBAJ&q=dee+selling+manuscript+bacon&pg=PA249 |access-date=9 June 2016}}{{dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite magazine |last=Duffy |first=Eamon |date=20 April 2017 |title=Secret knowledge – or a hoax? |magazine=[[The New York Review of Books]] |issn=0028-7504 |lang=en |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/04/20/voynich-manuscript-secret-knowledge-or-hoax/ |access-date=13 May 2020}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Stollznow |first=Karen |author-link = Karen Stollznow |year=2014 |title=The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript |magazine=Skeptic Magazine |volume=19 |issue=2 |url=http://karenstollznow.com/the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript/ |access-date = 8 June 2016|archive-date = 27 April 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180427184747/http://karenstollznow.com/the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript/}}
* {{cite thesis |first=Jürgen |last=Hermes |date=14 February 2012 |title=Textprozessierung – Design und Applikation |publisher=Universität zu Köln |degree=doctoral |url=http://www.uni-koeln.de/ |lang=de}}
* {{cite book |last=Foti |first=Claudio |year=2010 |title=Il Codice Voynich |location=Roma, IT |publisher=Eremon Edizioni |isbn=978-88-89713-17-4 |language=it}}
* {{cite book |last=Violat-Bordonau |first=Francisco |year=2006 |title=El ABC del Manuscrito Voynich |publisher=Ed. Asesores Astronómicos Cacereños |location=Cáceres, Spain |language=es}}
* {{cite book |last1=Goldstone |first1=Lawrence |last2=Goldstone |first2=Nancy |year=2005 |title=The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World |location=New York, NY |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-7679-1473-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/friarcipher00lawr |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |last=Pérez-Ruiz |first=Mario M. |year=2003 |title=El Manuscrito Voynich |location=Barcelona, ES |publisher=Océano Ambar |isbn=978-84-7556-216-2 |language=es}}
* {{cite thesis |last=Casanova |first=Antoine |date=19 March 1999 |title=Méthodes d'analyse du langage crypté: Une contribution à l'étude du manuscrit de Voynich |publisher=[[University of Paris|Université de Paris]] |degree=Ph.D. |url=http://voynich.free.fr/a_casanova_these_19mars1999.pdf |access-date=13 June 2016}}
* {{cite journal |last=Manly |first=John Matthews |year=1931 |title=Roger Bacon and the Voynich MS |journal=Speculum |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=345–391 |doi=10.2307/2848508 |jstor=2848508 |s2cid=163421798}}
* {{cite book |last=Newbold |first=William Romaine |year=1928 |title=The Cipher of Roger Bacon |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Manly |first=John Matthews |date=July 1921 |title=The most mysterious manuscript in the world: Did Roger Bacon write it and has the key been found? |magazine=Harper's Monthly Magazine |issue=143 |pages=186–197 |url=http://www.harpers.org/archive/1921/07/0004969}}
* {{cite journal |last=Voynich |first=Wilfrid Michael |year=1921 |title=A preliminary sketch of the history of the Roger Bacon cipher manuscript |journal=Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia |volume=3 |issue=43 |pages=415–430 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tNcCAAAAYAAJ&q=%22A%20Preliminary%20Sketch%20of%20the%20History%20of%20the%20Roger%20Bacon%20Cipher%20Manuscript%22&pg=PA415}}
* {{cite book |last=Levitov |first=Leo |year=1987 |title=Solution of the Voynich Manuscript: A liturgical manual for the Endura Rite of the Cathari heresy, the cult of Isis |publisher=Aegean Park Press |location=Laguna Hills, California}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links |wikt=Voynichese |v=no|n=no|q=no|s=no |b=The Voynich Manuscript}}
{{Spoken Wikipedia |En-Voynich manuscript-article.ogg |date=14 September 2016}}
* {{cite web |title=The Voynich Manuscript |department=Digital collection of the [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]] |publisher=[[Yale University]] |url=https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3519597 |format=.tiff; jpeg; pdf}}
* {{Internet Archive|id=TheVoynichManuscript|name=The Voynich Manuscript}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.jasondavies.com/voynich/#f1r/0.373/0.422/2.00 |title=Voynich Manuscript Voyager |website=jasondavies.com}} — navigating through high-resolution scans
* {{cite web |title=Voynich |quote=Public-domain font based on Voynich 101, which was used to transcribe the text to a digital form |url=http://openfontlibrary.org/en/font/voynich |access-date=4 December 2013 |archive-date=15 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150815183700/http://openfontlibrary.org/en/font/voynich |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.voynichese.com/ |title=Voynich manuscript character navigator}}
* {{Skeptoid | id= 4252| number=252 | title=The Voynich Manuscript | date=5 April 2011 | access-date=}}

=== Analyst websites ===
* {{cite web |editor-first=René |editor-last=Zandbergen |title=Voynich.nu |url=http://www.voynich.nu/index.html}}
* {{cite web |editor-first=Jim |editor-last=Reeds |title=Voynich manuscript bibliography |website=Voynich.net |url=http://www.voynich.net/reeds/bib.html}}
* {{cite web |editor-first=Jim |editor-last=Reeds |title=Voynich manuscript mailing list HQ |website=Voynich.net |url=http://www.voynich.net/}}
* {{cite web |editor-first=Jorge |editor-last=Stolfi |title=Extensive list of authors who published about the Voynich manuscript |url=http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/}}
* {{cite web |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Bloem |title=Unsupervised analysis of the Voynich manuscript |url=https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/b.bredeweg/pdf/BSc/20052006/Bloem.pdf}}
* {{cite web |editor-first=Nick |editor-last=Pelling |title=Voynich theories |website=Cipher Mysteries |url=http://ciphermysteries.com/the-voynich-manuscript/voynich-theories}}
* {{cite web |title=Voynich manuscript discussion forum |website=Voynich Ninja |url=https://www.voynich.ninja/index.php}}

=== News and documentaries ===
* {{cite news |first=John |last=Whitfield |date=17 December 2003 |title=World's most mysterious book may be a hoax |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |doi=10.1038/news031215-5 |doi-access=free |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/news031215-5 |access-date=2 June 2021}} news – summary of Gordon Rugg's paper directed towards a more general audience
* {{cite magazine |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=0000E3AA-70E1-10CF-AD1983414B7F0000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050910212025/http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=0000E3AA-70E1-10CF-AD1983414B7F0000 |archive-date=10 September 2005 |title=The mystery of the Voynich manuscript |magazine=[[Scientific American]] |date=21 June 2004}}
* {{cite magazine |date=July 2013 |title=The unread: The mystery of the Voynich manuscript |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/07/the-unread-the-mystery-of-the-voynich-manuscript.html |type=blog}}
* {{cite AV media |title=The Voynich Code: The world's mysterious manuscript |place=Austria |publisher=ORF (film company) |medium=TV documentary |year=2011 |series=TV 2011 festival winners (Silver World Medal) |website=New York Festivals |people=written and directed by [[Klaus T. Steindl]] & Andreas Sulzer |url=http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/winners/tvf2011winners/pieces.php?iid=413203&pid=1 <!-- presumed --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309095747/http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/winners/tvf2011winners/pieces.php?iid=413203&pid=1 |archive-date=9 March 2012}}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2019/05/25/le-mystere-de-l-indechiffrable-manuscrit-voynich-reste-entier_5467154_3246.html |title=Le mystère de l'indéchiffrable manuscrit Voynich reste entier |newspaper=[[Le Monde]] |date=25 May 2019}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZEHBkBlalc |title=The Voynich Manuscript |website=Youtube |author=The Histocrat |date=2020}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:15th-century manuscripts]]
[[Category:History of cryptography]]
[[Category:Scientific illuminated manuscripts]]
[[Category:Undeciphered historical codes and ciphers]]
[[Category:Works of unknown authorship]]
[[Category:Yale University Library]]