1. The Voynich Manuscript
Of all the bizarre and mysterious texts that have been uncovered over the years, perhaps none is as famous as the Voynich Manuscript, a book written by an anonymous author in an unknown language that has baffled nearly every cryptographer that’s ever tried to translate it. From what researchers have been able to uncover, the 15
th century manuscript was part of a Jesuit library in the 1800s, and from there it passed through several hands before falling into the possession of a Polish book dealer named Wilfrid Voynich in 1909. After Voynich’s death, the manuscript became a subject of fascination for linguists and cryptographers, many of whom spent years studying the book’s mysterious language and alphabet. There are numerous theories about the text of the Voynich Manuscript, including that it is some kind of encoded puzzle; that it’s written in a heretofore undiscovered language; that it is meant to be read under a microscope; and even that it’s some kind of divinely inspired religious document that was written in a trance. But these are all just theories, and even after some fifty years of examination by the world’s top code-breakers, nothing is known for sure. Crude drawings of plants and jars in the book’s margins have led many to claim that it must be a manual on medicine or alchemy, but this too is just conjecture.
Possible Explanations
Because it has proven so resistant to translation, the Voynich Manuscript has inevitably been written off by many as a hoax. Critics of this theory argue that the book’s syntax is too sophisticated to have been faked, but others have shown that the technology of the time—particularly an encoding device called a “Cardan Grille”—would have made it possible for someone to fabricate the Voynich as a hoax. Still, none of these arguments have fully convinced Voynich scholars, who are either unwilling or unable to admit that the document might be a fake. Carbon dating has recently proven that the manuscript does indeed date back to the 1400s, but beyond that its origin and purpose still remain an enigma.