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July 24, 2003

 

the voynich manuscript

When, in 1639, the Prague citizen Georg Baresch wrote to the famous Jesuit scientist Athanasius Kircher that he owned a mysterious book which was written in an unknown script and profusely illustrated with pictures of plants, stars and alchemical secrets, he thought that Kircher would be able to decipher this book for him. He could not have guessed that not only was Kircher unable to do this, but that a long row of vastly more expert codebreakers were equally going to fail. The book has come down to us and even now, more than 360 years later, not a single word from its 234 pages can be understood.

"Within that awful volume lies the mystery of mysteries!" - Sir Walter Scott

Posted by xtop at July 24, 2003 10:46 PM | TrackBack
 




Commentary:

i need a copy of this book. need.

Posted by: vinz at July 25, 2003 12:23 PM

it's now kept at Yale. I believe you can get them to make a photoduplicate for you.

Posted by: x. at July 25, 2003 12:30 PM

That would be good. My library is lacking in something so esoteric and semiotic. Perhaps Umberto Eco might be able to crack it. I'll put in a call.

Posted by: vinz at July 25, 2003 02:26 PM

Let me know what the cost is, I'll kick in half if you photocopy your photocopies.

Posted by: x. at July 25, 2003 02:55 PM

copies of copies...okay, i'm in. yale owes me, after all.

Posted by: v-i-n-c-e-o at July 27, 2003 10:58 AM

Fortean Times did an article about this recently

...must have that...somewhere....

Posted by: Test...John Test at August 3, 2003 09:20 PM

do people check for mirror images? I dunno, just a thought.

Posted by: me at January 23, 2004 06:45 PM
bam:
an empty telephone Products


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