/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.681209]

As far as mysterious pieces of literature go, no piece of work stands out more than the book that has been titled "The Voynich Manuscript".

This book, which was written on vellum (mammal skin) paper has had the paper, as well as the ink, carbon dated to have originated sometime in the early- to mid-1400's. What's most interesting about this book, is the fact that no one in the last 500-600 years has ever been able to decipher what it says, nor identify what language in which it is written.

The book contains various chapters with illustrations on nearly every page. Based on the pictures, the book's sections range in topics from plant identification, to the biology of the human body, to the description of astronomy/astrology and even contains a calendar that can be used to plot seasons, dates, as well as stars. The last section seems to be about architecture.

Linguists, scholars, code-breaking specialists, and cryptographers over the centuries have tried diligently to decipher what the text says, but have had absolutely no success whatsoever.

The stunning thing about the words, however, is that they have been studied vigorously by handwriting scholars and they have all come to the conclusion that whoever wrote the book was extremely well-versed in the language. This can be proven by the ease and accuracy of each stroke of the pen, which were written with the same ease and continuity that would be written by a writer who was writing his own native language, rather than the choppy and careful strokes of someone writing in code or encryption.

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[Anonymous No.681226]

The book was first proven to exist in a letter that an alchemist wrote to a scholastic friend, asking about hints as to the books origin and language. After the alchemist's death, the book traded owners numerous times, before ending up in the hands of a man with the surname Voynich, after which the text was named. After his death, the book was eventually donated to the historical library of Yale University where it remains today.

To this day, no one knows the books author, nor the language in which it is written. The language is very strange in the fact that it uses alphbetic characters that must appear in one form or another in every word (much like vowels in modern-day English), but also uses words that repeat twice, sometimes three times in succession, a trait commonly seen in the ancient Asian languages. Every single word and every single "letter" in the text has been recorded and meticulously studied, and still there is no pattern or indication as to what the language is, where its from, or what it means.

The idea that the book itself is a hoax has come up in debate, however most scholars regard this as extremely unlikely. The meticulous detail and the time it would have taken to create the book would be unlike any hoax of this kind. Also, the fact that no one in the books history of ownership ever tried to profit off of it, as well as the carbon dating method used, leads most scholars to believe it is completely genuine.

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[Anonymous No.681252]

>>681226
>>681209
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[Anonymous No.681254]

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[Anonymous No.681269]

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[Anonymous No.681290]

The Codex Seraphinianus is the same book with better pictures.

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[Anonymous No.681317]

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[Anonymous No.681318]

http://xkcd.com/593/

[Anonymous No.681325]

>>681290
>The Codex Seraphinianus is the same book with better pictures.

Incorrect. That book was written by Luigi Serafini in 1970's, and was written in a language that the he made up. The book bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Voynich Manuscript other than the fact that it uses a language that cannot be identified by the typical reader. The pictures are very vivid and detailed, but have absolutely no relation to those of the voynich manuscript. Perhaps Luigi was inspired to write the codex because of the manuscript, but it is not the same book at all, and was written merely as a fictional encyclopedia about a universe that which serafini had created.

[Anonymous No.681333]

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[Anonymous No.681340]

moar

[Anonymous No.681362]

Megatron approves of this thread

[Anonymous No.681364]

>>681325
You're right. Other than being wide ranging encyclopedias the cover similarly disparate and similar topics, featuring liberal use of illustrations and both being written in an undecipherable text there is absolutely no resemblance between the two.

That Serafini was more overt about his book being duplicitous/fictional hardly makes a difference in the effect the book has on the reader.

[Anonymous No.681366]

>>681209
Have they tried putting it against a mirror?

[Anonymous No.681380]

>>681366
lol im sure they have

[Anonymous No.681381]

>>681325
You're right. Other than being intended to be interpreted in both cases as ambitious, wide ranging encyclopedias that cover similarly disparate and similar topics, featuring liberal use of illustrations, and being written in an undecipherable text there is absolutely no resemblance between the two.

That Serafini was more overt about his book being duplicitous/fictional hardly makes a difference in the effect the book has on the reader.

[Anonymous No.681409]

any other ancient books written in unknown languages that ppl kno about?

[Anonymous No.681416]

>>681381
I like the idea of both but find The Voynich Manuscript scarier as the author and everything about it is unknown unlike the Serafini

[Anonymous No.681432]

>>681209
>>681226

[Anonymous No.681460]

>>681409

I checked. I gave 7 minutes of my time and 11 google searches & I couldn't find any, which makes me somewhat disappointed. I was hoping there was.

[Anonymous No.681478]

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[Anonymous No.681489]

>>681409
There were other ciphers that are still unsolved. Most notably, there are a few remaining Zodiac Ciphers, the Dorabella text (although this one is claimed as solved recently here http://unsolvedproblems.org/index_files/Solutions.htm)), The Babington Plot, and others.

Theres a nice list of a few here
http://www.elonka.com/UnsolvedCodes.html

As for an entire book written without the key, Voynich is all I am aware of. I am suprised to find this post on lit. I've been getting into ciphertext this year and even doing numbers relays with another interested friend. Any can participate here
http://books.dreambook.com/drdef/nrp.html

The site is based on one-time pad codes and is very similar to Numbers Stations (look that up in wiki).

[Anonymous No.681524]

>>681432
pic makes me lol every time

[Anonymous No.681557]

moar?>

[Anonymous No.681569]

That book still trolling people after 600 years.

[Anonymous No.681573]

It was aliens.

[Anonymous No.681574]

im determined to know what it reads this is probably the most interesting thing i've ever seen on 4chan

[Anonymous No.681575]

>>681489
Oh god, I'm going to be hooked on that unsolved problems website now.

[Anonymous No.681609]

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography/dp/0385495323/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=
books&qid=1274123888&sr=8-1

this was recommended to me by another math major. looks pretty hot.

[Anonymous No.681620]

It's not a hoax, but it IS a made-up language about made-up stuff. Whoever wrote it was just some smart guy (or group of smart guys) making shit up. The diagrams and plants are just chimeras of existing plants mostly, the roots of one kind, the stem of another, etc. The language being confidently written is obviously just a product of the dude practicing what he was going to write before putting it down in the final manuscript.