V is for Voynich Manuscript

Voynich Manuscript
See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Source: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University 

The Voynich Manuscript is a document of about 230 vellum pages that is believed to have been written in the 14th or 15th century. It surfaced in 1912, when Wilfrid Voynich, an antiquarian bookseller, purchased it.

The book is filled with some sort of script that no one can determine or decipher. Analysts have determined that it is an alphabet of over twenty letters, but probably less than thirty. Though it has been reviewed around the world, no one has yet been able to state what the alphabet is or what the language is.

Detail from page 78r of Voynich Manuscript
 depicting the "biological" section 

In addition to the unreadable words, there are drawings of some form of plants, though none have been affiliated with modern day plant life. There are also drawings of tiny naked women in some sort of round bathtub or other item. In addition, there are pages that seem to be related to astronomy and other things.

It is generally thought to be either magic-based or scientific, due to the botanical drawings and what are theorized to be herbal recipes (perhaps).

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The text is written left to right, there are paragraphs (some set apart by "bullets"), and there are words that repeat throughout, but there are also words that don't repeat, symbols/letters that appear only at specific points in each word (some only in the center, some at beginning or end), and very few two letter or short words. It is obvious that some pages are missing, and it is considered that the pages may have once been in a different order. One odd thing is that there are absolutely no signs of mistakes or corrections. It was either written sans mistakes (or the mistakes weren't corrected, but left in place) or it was copied from another manuscript (like monks used to do, perhaps).

I did find an article from someone who claims it is Italian anagrams written in embellished script.

If you want to see a significant chunk of the pages, visit the Wikimedia Commons page.

So who wrote this book? Is it written in code, or is it some language we have yet to decipher? Was it copied or written perfectly from the start? What the heck is it about? Is it a scientific text, a magical one, or some combination thereof?

May you find your Muse.