- [Narrator] No book is more shrouded in secrets than the Voynich manuscripts. It's written in an unknown language, full of diagrams, drawings, and pictures of plants no one has ever seen. It's confused cryptologists, scientists, and scholars for centuries.
So, what secrets are hidden inside the Voynich manuscripts? Let's find out in today's episode of - [Commanding Voice] Colossal Mysteries. - [Narrator] The Voynich manuscript was written somewhere between 1404 and 1438, but its author remains a mystery.
In fact, they appear to have created their very own language in the book, one so unusual that nobody has ever been able to decipher it. It's full of fancy scripted letters, astrological graphs, and strange, colorful pictures of plants, some resembling nothing ever seen on Earth. At more than 200 pages long, the mysterious manuscript is divided into four separate sections.
The first section is full of detailed drawings of plants, some of which look thoroughly out of this world. Section two is all about astrology. There are celestial charts and circular drawings intertwined with weird drawings around the edges.
In part three, those drawings take over, and part four appears to be recipes for different unknown, medieval medicines using the plants from part one. The Voynich manuscript is a strange book to be sure and it's confounded the curious ever since. The book's first-known owner was none other than the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II.
The Emperor was just as dumbfounded by the book as everyone else until the day he died. Shortly after Rudolf's death, the book was transferred to a scientist living in Prague who also couldn't crack the code. Frustrated, he called the book a riddle that was uselessly taking up space, so he sent the book the Egypt for a hieroglyphics expert to inspect.
The book wasn't seen again for over 200 years until it finally resurfaced in 1912 when a plucky Polish book dealer named Wilfrid Voynich purchased it. Until the day he died, Wilfrid refused to disclose who sold him the book. This further fanned the flames and led some to suspect that Voynich himself may have forged the book as a hoax.
But carbon dating of the manuscript from 2009 confirmed the book was written in the 1400s, so Voynich was cleared. But the question still remains. If the Voynich manuscript isn't a hoax, then what is it?
The theories are all over the place. Some say it's an ancient nature encyclopedia. Others believe that it's some sort of travel diary left behind by aliens.
Some believe it comes from a long-lost culture, and still, others are convinced that it must somehow be a hoax. So, what exactly is the Voynich manuscript? The truth is, after decades of dedicated study to try and solve the mystery, this strange book seems likely to remain one of our most enduring historical codes to crack.
