Escrito en el siglo XV en una lengua desconocida, los especialistas llevan siglos intentando descifrar el manuscrito Voynich. Desentrañamos sus misterios. Por C.M.Sánchez/ Foto
The baffling Voynich Manuscript, written in an apparently indecipherable script, has caused much head-scratching since its rediscovery in 1912. Thought to be of mediaeval origin, it contains quasi-astrological diagrams, depictions of strange devices, plants - unlike any earthly flora - alongside nude figures bathing in complex networks of 'pools' featuring recycled water (some mechanisms of which look decidedly unhygienic to modern eyes). Some reckon it to be an alchemical text, whilst others believe it a hoax or an artistic exercise in glyptolalia. Judge for yourself here. One intriguing set of theories proposed by H. Richard SantaColoma speculate upon its possible representation of Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, specifically Solomon's House - its college. For this, it must be assumed that the manuscript was written in the early 17th century (or slightly earlier depending on the actual conception of the New Atlantis utopia) albeit on 15th century vellum (as carbon dating has proven). The optical activities of the 'Perspective Houses' along with the grafting of diverse plants are considered as being represented within the manuscript. However, if this theory is true, where are Solomon's House's famed 'Sound houses'? Could the 'sound' chapter have once comprised the now missing excised 32 pages? Sonic activities in Solomon's House, New Atlantis These theories are inspiring to contemplate. There are so many conflicting ideas vying for consideration surrounding the Voynich manuscript that it wouldn't do much harm to throw in my tuppence worth, as far fetched as my following speculation may *sound*... It seems that nobody has yet considered the Voynich Manuscript entirely in terms of acoustics. Does the whole manuscript in fact concern sonics? Admittedly, at first glance it would appear that sound or music is entirely absent, but to those acquainted with cymatics a possible avenue of investigation reveals itself. (This may be a cue for some people to stop reading any further, especially for those who stand by the old adage "all comparisons are odious"). In the tradition of Daphne Oram's bravura sonic speculations, tentative explorations can be made with this acoustic angle. In the 1880s, the singer Margaret Watts Hughes developed a technique of producing 2D organic forms on a flexible membrane strewn with a fine powder, a la Chladni's plate (but with the singing voice as the agitator). The membrane was stretched over a sounding chamber with a pipe connected to it, through which Hughes would sustain tones, varying in timbre. Upon the membrane, plant-like and fern-like forms were made by steadily moving the eidophone membrane over paste-covered glass, in effect creating a recording. This technique produced entire gardens of sorts. In 1891, Hughes wrote "(…) day by day I have gone on singing into shape these peculiar forms, and, stepping out of doors, have seen their parallels living in the flowers, ferns and trees around me; and, again, as I have watched the little heaps in the formation of the floral figures gather themselves up and then shoot out their petals, just as a flower springs from the swollen bud". Could the Voynich manuscript depict eidophonic activities? A Voynich 'rosette' In the 20th century, Hans Jenny coined the term 'cymatics' to refer to the basic visible-sound phenomena. Jenny used piezo-electric agitation, and also employed water-filled plates (although producing forms in liquids with only the voice would be very difficult - requiring acute volume and pinpoint pitch). However, many of Jenny's most iconic cymatic figures were produced by electronic oscillators operating in the kilohertz domain - above vocal range. Eidophones Throughout the Voynich manuscript, 'sprays' and 'streams' can be seen issuing from bizarre pipes. The wavy streams are evidently liquids of some sort, although the sprays are more incongruous. The technique of producing fine sprays from liquids was proposed by Bernoulli in his 1738 book 'Hydrodynamica' and was only perfected in the form of atomisers in the mid 19th century. Some of these spray emissions in the manuscript seem to defy gravity, ruling out powder sprays. Are these sprays early representations of sound? It's worth mentioning that the now-discredited corpuscular theory of sound was 'in the air' since the 1620s. On page 77 of the manuscript, five 'elements' are illustrated issuing from a pipe manned by figures at each end. The figure on the right has an apparent emission towards or from the mouth. Does it represent the formative powers of sound? There are other suggestions of this power, such as in the 'rosettes' fold-out where buildings are seen emerging from the primordial patterns. Also, the majority of the figures shown throughout have their mouths in an 'O' shape hinting at voice production. The images of 'bathers in pools' may actually depict naked choirs all sounding the same resonant note, crowded inside large resonant drums and cavities sending their voices through tubes to membranes, upon which large voice figures figures may be produced. Their nudity might be due to the fact that clothing absorbs sound, whereas skin (especially if wet) is more reflective of sound (performers today note that acoustics of rooms alter when an audience is present) thus preserving resonance. The manuscript's astrological charts show some similarities to cymatic figures. The charts showing improbable spiral forms may indicate motion, as the combined voices of the singers would be rife with rich phasings (chorusing) which would translate as an unstable, moving cymatic figure, with manifest rotary motions. The symbolic demarcations of some charts might be attempts at macro/microcosmic integration by corresponding the limbs of voice figures with astrological houses. The chorusing, that is, the cumulation of pitch and tone discrepancies in a choir voicing the same note, would create 'blurred' unstable voice figures. Maybe the vase-like devices shown in the final section of the manuscript are Helmholtz resonators, or Vitruvius' urns, tuned to enhance/amplify the purity of the tone? Furthermore, were membranes stretched over the mouth of these ornate resonator urns? (H. Richard SantaColoma suggests these devices shown were not resonator urns, but early microscopes). If an eidophonic system is depicted, the manuscript's exotic plant forms may derive from species of cymatic/eidophone voice figures. But this begs the question as to why the plants are coloured - as any particle-based eidophone figures would certainly not be colour specific. Of course this is all an extremely tenuous speculation. All natural forms have harmonic characteristics (most notable in phyllotactic patterns) and are thus potentially translatable into sound. Besides, there's scant historical record of any such vibratory practices occurring in antiquity, and certainly none this elaborate. However, it may be remembered that study of natural phenomena was strictly forbidden for centuries in Christendom, and beyond. Resonators? The likeliest theory is that the Voynich manuscript is a fantastical piece of systematised confusion: a dreamscape of pure flummox, maybe of hallucinatory origin. The style was even expertly pastiched by Luigi Serafini in his 1981 masterpiece 'Codex Seraphinianus' - a monumental oddity of glyptolalia. Imagine randomly finding a book so utterly odd it can only be assumed to originate from another planet. Incidentally, this is surely the touchstone of mediadropping! As a footnote, the woodcut a few paragraphs above showing a New Atlantis 'Sound House' appears quite a lot online, and is often said to originate from an old imprint of New Atlantis. It may go some way to show how easily we may be deceived by forgings of period styles, as, after some research, it transpired that it's in fact a pastiche of 17th century engraving created by 20th century U.S. artist Lowell Hess. It's from a 1970 book titled 'Graphic Design for the Computer Age'. UPDATE 22/10/11: H. Richard SantaColoma has pointed out that the 'rosettes' fold-out page of the Voynich Manuscript most likely depicts a map, perhaps detailing the various departments of the House of Solomon. Here, a candidate for the Sound House is identified in the top left hand corner. He draws attention to the pointed loudhaileresque tubes, seen both as an extended pentad on the Sound House, and in shorter clusters surrounding the central House of Solomon. It can be seen here.
El manuscrito Voynich es un misterioso libro ilustrado, de contenidos desconocidos, escrito hace unos 500 años por un autor anónimo en un...
The baffling Voynich Manuscript, written in an apparently indecipherable script, has caused much head-scratching since its rediscovery in 1912. Thought to be of mediaeval origin, it contains quasi-astrological diagrams, depictions of strange devices, plants - unlike any earthly flora - alongside nude figures bathing in complex networks of 'pools' featuring recycled water (some mechanisms of which look decidedly unhygienic to modern eyes). Some reckon it to be an alchemical text, whilst others believe it a hoax or an artistic exercise in glyptolalia. Judge for yourself here. One intriguing set of theories proposed by H. Richard SantaColoma speculate upon its possible representation of Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, specifically Solomon's House - its college. For this, it must be assumed that the manuscript was written in the early 17th century (or slightly earlier depending on the actual conception of the New Atlantis utopia) albeit on 15th century vellum (as carbon dating has proven). The optical activities of the 'Perspective Houses' along with the grafting of diverse plants are considered as being represented within the manuscript. However, if this theory is true, where are Solomon's House's famed 'Sound houses'? Could the 'sound' chapter have once comprised the now missing excised 32 pages? Sonic activities in Solomon's House, New Atlantis These theories are inspiring to contemplate. There are so many conflicting ideas vying for consideration surrounding the Voynich manuscript that it wouldn't do much harm to throw in my tuppence worth, as far fetched as my following speculation may *sound*... It seems that nobody has yet considered the Voynich Manuscript entirely in terms of acoustics. Does the whole manuscript in fact concern sonics? Admittedly, at first glance it would appear that sound or music is entirely absent, but to those acquainted with cymatics a possible avenue of investigation reveals itself. (This may be a cue for some people to stop reading any further, especially for those who stand by the old adage "all comparisons are odious"). In the tradition of Daphne Oram's bravura sonic speculations, tentative explorations can be made with this acoustic angle. In the 1880s, the singer Margaret Watts Hughes developed a technique of producing 2D organic forms on a flexible membrane strewn with a fine powder, a la Chladni's plate (but with the singing voice as the agitator). The membrane was stretched over a sounding chamber with a pipe connected to it, through which Hughes would sustain tones, varying in timbre. Upon the membrane, plant-like and fern-like forms were made by steadily moving the eidophone membrane over paste-covered glass, in effect creating a recording. This technique produced entire gardens of sorts. In 1891, Hughes wrote "(…) day by day I have gone on singing into shape these peculiar forms, and, stepping out of doors, have seen their parallels living in the flowers, ferns and trees around me; and, again, as I have watched the little heaps in the formation of the floral figures gather themselves up and then shoot out their petals, just as a flower springs from the swollen bud". Could the Voynich manuscript depict eidophonic activities? A Voynich 'rosette' In the 20th century, Hans Jenny coined the term 'cymatics' to refer to the basic visible-sound phenomena. Jenny used piezo-electric agitation, and also employed water-filled plates (although producing forms in liquids with only the voice would be very difficult - requiring acute volume and pinpoint pitch). However, many of Jenny's most iconic cymatic figures were produced by electronic oscillators operating in the kilohertz domain - above vocal range. Eidophones Throughout the Voynich manuscript, 'sprays' and 'streams' can be seen issuing from bizarre pipes. The wavy streams are evidently liquids of some sort, although the sprays are more incongruous. The technique of producing fine sprays from liquids was proposed by Bernoulli in his 1738 book 'Hydrodynamica' and was only perfected in the form of atomisers in the mid 19th century. Some of these spray emissions in the manuscript seem to defy gravity, ruling out powder sprays. Are these sprays early representations of sound? It's worth mentioning that the now-discredited corpuscular theory of sound was 'in the air' since the 1620s. On page 77 of the manuscript, five 'elements' are illustrated issuing from a pipe manned by figures at each end. The figure on the right has an apparent emission towards or from the mouth. Does it represent the formative powers of sound? There are other suggestions of this power, such as in the 'rosettes' fold-out where buildings are seen emerging from the primordial patterns. Also, the majority of the figures shown throughout have their mouths in an 'O' shape hinting at voice production. The images of 'bathers in pools' may actually depict naked choirs all sounding the same resonant note, crowded inside large resonant drums and cavities sending their voices through tubes to membranes, upon which large voice figures figures may be produced. Their nudity might be due to the fact that clothing absorbs sound, whereas skin (especially if wet) is more reflective of sound (performers today note that acoustics of rooms alter when an audience is present) thus preserving resonance. The manuscript's astrological charts show some similarities to cymatic figures. The charts showing improbable spiral forms may indicate motion, as the combined voices of the singers would be rife with rich phasings (chorusing) which would translate as an unstable, moving cymatic figure, with manifest rotary motions. The symbolic demarcations of some charts might be attempts at macro/microcosmic integration by corresponding the limbs of voice figures with astrological houses. The chorusing, that is, the cumulation of pitch and tone discrepancies in a choir voicing the same note, would create 'blurred' unstable voice figures. Maybe the vase-like devices shown in the final section of the manuscript are Helmholtz resonators, or Vitruvius' urns, tuned to enhance/amplify the purity of the tone? Furthermore, were membranes stretched over the mouth of these ornate resonator urns? (H. Richard SantaColoma suggests these devices shown were not resonator urns, but early microscopes). If an eidophonic system is depicted, the manuscript's exotic plant forms may derive from species of cymatic/eidophone voice figures. But this begs the question as to why the plants are coloured - as any particle-based eidophone figures would certainly not be colour specific. Of course this is all an extremely tenuous speculation. All natural forms have harmonic characteristics (most notable in phyllotactic patterns) and are thus potentially translatable into sound. Besides, there's scant historical record of any such vibratory practices occurring in antiquity, and certainly none this elaborate. However, it may be remembered that study of natural phenomena was strictly forbidden for centuries in Christendom, and beyond. Resonators? The likeliest theory is that the Voynich manuscript is a fantastical piece of systematised confusion: a dreamscape of pure flummox, maybe of hallucinatory origin. The style was even expertly pastiched by Luigi Serafini in his 1981 masterpiece 'Codex Seraphinianus' - a monumental oddity of glyptolalia. Imagine randomly finding a book so utterly odd it can only be assumed to originate from another planet. Incidentally, this is surely the touchstone of mediadropping! As a footnote, the woodcut a few paragraphs above showing a New Atlantis 'Sound House' appears quite a lot online, and is often said to originate from an old imprint of New Atlantis. It may go some way to show how easily we may be deceived by forgings of period styles, as, after some research, it transpired that it's in fact a pastiche of 17th century engraving created by 20th century U.S. artist Lowell Hess. It's from a 1970 book titled 'Graphic Design for the Computer Age'. UPDATE 22/10/11: H. Richard SantaColoma has pointed out that the 'rosettes' fold-out page of the Voynich Manuscript most likely depicts a map, perhaps detailing the various departments of the House of Solomon. Here, a candidate for the Sound House is identified in the top left hand corner. He draws attention to the pointed loudhaileresque tubes, seen both as an extended pentad on the Sound House, and in shorter clusters surrounding the central House of Solomon. It can be seen here.
The Voynich Manuscript is a document that is notable for its strange text, that to date hasn't been decyphered. Theories range from a secret language or code...
The Voynich manuscript contains several drawings of containers that were apparently used to store and carry medicinal powders from the roots depicted beside the containers. The photographs above are of a carved wooden needlecase, possibly once painted. The finder believed it to be from Victorian Bavaria. Treen, literally "of a tree" is a generic name for small handmade functional household objects made of wood. Treen is distinct from furniture, such as chairs, and cabinetry, as well as clocks and cupboards. Salt cellar, The National Museum of Finland The salt container is a horn, cover and base made of wood. The cover has a leather strap which is threaded metal and bony ring. The bottle is decorated with a ribbed surface with Diagonal in width, depth and distance relative to each other varies Salt container; birch bark container The National Museum of Finland Tuohinen salt jar. Side is on top of a number of knurled birchbark strips. The base is wooden. Before the late 17th-century, when silver, pewter, and ceramics were introduced for tableware, most small household items, boxes and tableware were carved from wood. The herbal jars in the Voynich appear to be turned, carved, and painted wood. Below are some of the Voynich manuscript jars beside treenware (spice urns, necessaires, and needle cases) created in various European countries. Quite a few of the Voynich herbal jars have feet such as these three steins below, which were made in Norway. However, the Voynich side patterns appear to be similar to the round box in the lower left, which was made in Poland. Below is a typical Italian renaissance apothecary jar. They very often have portraits and lettering, and the shape tends to be either cylindrical or stout. Here, angels, dragons, saints, and portraits are used to embellish, whereas the decoration on the Voynich jars, like the Polish wooden box above, stays cleanly non-figurative. Some have also suggested that the Voynich jars are Egyptian perfume bottles like the one below. Certainly we are getting closer to the curvier shapes of the Voynich containers. However, glass would have been outrageously costly. In addition, the neck of a glass perfume bottle would make it difficult to insert or extract the roots depicted beside the container, even were they to be ground to a fine dust. Finally, nothing else in the manuscript points to any connection with Egypt. Where the Voynich manuscript was written, wood was far more plentiful and less costly than glass or the fine clay needed for ceramics, and the countries in the Baltic region and Scandinavia have been fine craftsmen in wood for centuries before the Voynich was written. Altarpiece of carved wood, Naantali Monastery, Finland The objects appear to have been turned on a lathe and subsequently carved and painted. Made from various materials, sewing kits with needle cases like the 10th c. bronze one above were popular up to the late 19th century. The women of the Voynich may have gutted and then used their sewing necessaires to store roots and then used the needle cases to carry the medicinal powders. A precedent for carrying a belt with such implements as powder containers, needle cases, spoons, etc. may be found among the Sami, who have for millennia crafted such beautiful item they call duodji. These often hang from a belt. It is past time to re-examine Norse, Balto-Finnic, and Germanic culture especially with an eye to the potential extent to which the Sami have influenced them. I do believe many innovations and traditions attributed to the Norse made their way into that culture via the ancient Kvens' adoption but also appropriation and exploitation of Sami culture. The Kvens themselves were subsumed beneath later migrations from the South so that this link became forgotten, but the echoes remain. Here I discuss further Sami influences found in the Voynich manuscript. The containers have terms related to what the concoction would be used for. For example, it may be a base used in blending active agents, or its purpose could be to boost fertility or help in healing a wound or a remedy for a certain ailing organ. The plants, on the other hand, appear to be labeled with their common (folk/local) names, perhaps at times just a characteristic of the plant, and nothing else. Again, this is 15th century folk medicine. To read it requires forgetting Linnaeus, botany, modern medicine, and, though not all, most of Latin. \ Despite the harsh Nordic climatic conditions, a great number of medicinal and culinary herbs have been used since early in Finland's history. The first-used plants originated from the Finnish flora, but later the plant spectrum was enlarged by non-domestic species. The introduction of new herb species was influenced by several historical factors, such as medieval monastery culture or the Swedish governmental policy favouring the domestic cultivation of herbs during the 18th century (Peldan 1967). In military fortresses, herb gardens supplied the necessary healing plant materials for the surgeons, and in towns a herb garden of about 100 m2 was the precondition for the permission for a new pharmacy. The available historical sources report different number of species used as medicinal and spice plants in Finland. In the earliest plant list, from the Naantali Monastery near Turku (South West Finland), medicinal use of 21 plant species was reported in 1440 (Peldan 1967). Elias Tillandz in 1673 listed about 60 species used and cultivated around Turku for medicinal and flavouring purposes (Ruoff 2001). In the first Finnish language herb book, Pietari Gadd described the cultivation of 17 spice and medicinal plants (Gadd 1768). A literature survey by Saarnijoki (1976) listed the medicinal plants which were cultivated in the vegetable and herb gardens in Finland during the 17th to 19th centuries. The number of the most popular herb species was 24. Kalliomaki (1999) mentioned 50 herb species from the wild and from garden cultivation which were used for medicinal purposes in Finland. From Report of a Working Group on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, edited by E. Lipman "...The old tradition of monasteries as healing centres continued throughout the late Middle Ages. In particular, the ancient learning of herbal tradition was preserved and transmitted in monastic manuscripts," as is exemplified in the chapter of Niiranen, in which the herbal recipes of the monastery of Naantali is analysed. Such learning was not a monopoly of monks and nuns and herbal guide books were used in lay settings as well. During the last centuries of the Middle Ages lay settings became increasingly important in the field of healing, as monasteries lost a lot of their former importance after the birth of universities. From the fourteenth century on, new types of sources such as health books and personal health guides, texts produced mainly for the upper middle class, increased in number. Guide books were composed also by the elite, as McClecry's analysis of the Portuguese king Duarte's (1433-1438) texts, Loyal Counsellor and Book of Advice, reveals. Not only living well but also dying well was in the interest of medieval people; these moral issues were also emphasised in artistic representations, as Sophie Oosterwijk argues in her chapter 'This Worlde is but a Pilgrimage': Mental Attitudes in/to the Medieval Dante Macabre.' The structural similarity with herbals is in accordance with the assumptions made about the influence of medieval Danish herbals. Similarly to the Occitan collection, recipes concerning mental disorders are dispersed among other recipes for common ailments such as fevers, stomach and skin diseases, frost-bite, bleeding nose, dysentery, toothache, broken bones, dog bites, assorted wounds, baldness and hair loss. There are no veterinary recipes (in comparison to one in the Occitan collection) and only one how-to-do recipe (in contrast to several household chores among Occitan recipes). How to make ink with wormwood in order to prevent mice from eating hooks is the only advice on daily life offered for the Swedish audience." This tip undoubtedly refers to the world of universities or monasteries where books were frequently used. However, magic is not present in any form and no prayers or fragments of liturgical texts are cited in the Swedish collection. The Swedish text is shorter than its Occitan counterpart. There are only nine paragraphs, each concerning one main ingredient and different mixtures made from it, in seven folios, whereas the Occitan collection consists of larger volume of folios with more than 300 individual recipes. The identification of all the recipes that concern mental disorders is not easy." From Mental (Dis)Order in Later Medieval Europe edited by Sari Katajala-Peltomaa and Susanna Niiranen, page 164 Sweet Chestnuts The leaves, picked in June and July when they are in best condition and dried. They have also been used in the fresh state. Chestnut leaves have no odour, but an astringent taste. Medicinal Action and Uses In some places Chestnut leaves are used as a popular remedy in fever and ague, for their tonic and astringent properties. Their reputation rests, however, upon their efficacy in paroxysmal and convulsive coughs, such as whooping-cough, and in other irritable and excitable conditions of the respiratory organs. Culpepper says: 'if you dry the chestnut, both the barks being taken away, beat them into powder and make the powder up into an electuary with honey, it is a first-rate remedy for cough and spitting of blood.
The Voynich Manuscript is a document that is notable for its strange text, that to date hasn't been decyphered. Theories range from a secret language or code...
The Voynich Manuscript is a document that is notable for its strange text, that to date hasn't been decyphered. Theories range from a secret language or code...
The Voynich Manuscript is a document that is notable for its strange text, that to date hasn't been decyphered. Theories range from a secret language or code...
The Voynich Manuscript is a document that is notable for its strange text, that to date hasn't been decyphered. Theories range from a secret language or code...
The Voynich Manuscript is a document that is notable for its strange text, that to date hasn't been decyphered. Theories range from a secret language or code...
The Voynich Manuscript is a document that is notable for its strange text, that to date hasn't been decyphered. Theories range from a secret language or code...
Não é um manuscrito qualquer. É o mais misterioso manuscrito do mundo. Um livro cujo conteúdo é incompreensível até hoje que se estima ter sido escrito por volta de 1500 por um autor desconhecido através de uma linguagem incompreensível. Descoberto em 1912, o Manuscrito Voynich é também conhecido como o livro que ninguém pode ler. Muitos pesquisadores tentaram descodificar as 204 páginas do manuscrito, mas até há poucos dias nenhuma palavra foi decifrada. Diversas técnicas foram utilizadas pelos maiores especialistas do mundo, sem sucesso. Uma das características do livro é que foi escrito sem pontuação. Ao todo, existem 170 mil caracteres. São cerca de 35 mil palavras ao todo. O misterioso alfabeto utilizado no manuscrito é único. Foram reconhecidas entre 19 a 28 possíveis letras, que não possuem nenhuma ligação com nenhum alfabeto conhecido. Outra característica marcante é a total ausência de erros ortográficos, como rasuras (palavras riscadas), diferentemente de todos os outros manuscritos antigos já encontrados. Mas nem só de palavras o manuscrito é composto. Existem inúmeras figuras desenhadas, um pouco mais fáceis de serem entendidas, mas nem por isso identificáveis com certezas absolutas. O livro foi dividido em 5 secções principais: I – possui ilustrações de mais de 110 plantas desconhecidas, contudo há uma planta muito semelhante à um girassol, que passou a existir na Europa Ocidental somente a partir de 1492. II – representa a astronomia e astrologia, cujos 25 diagramas se referem a estrelas e signos do zodíaco. III – possui muitos desenhos de mulheres, geralmente imersas até os joelhos em estranhos vasos que possuem um escuro fluído. IV – possui desenhos de frascos semelhantes a antigos recipientes de farmácias. Há ainda alguns desenhos de pequenas raízes e ervas medicinais. V – Não há imagens, somente texto, e prossegue nas últimas páginas do manuscrito. Ainda existem muitos debates em torno da data do manuscrito. Uma análise realizada através de radiação infravermelha revela uma assinatura legível bastante apagada: Jacobi a Tepenece. A assinatura faz referência à Jacobus Horcicki, alquimista falecido em 1622. Jacobus recebeu o título de Tepenece somente em 1608, ou seja, o manuscrito só pode ter sido feito após esse ano. Bacon Contudo, análises feitas recentemente sugerem que o manuscrito tenha sido escrito em período relativamente curto entre 1404 e 1438, aumentando ainda mais o mistério. “É tão próximo do que conhecemos, mas tão distante do que podemos decifrar”, foi a conclusão de um dos especialistas que tentou descodifica-lo. Veja abaixo um excelente documentário exibido pelo History Channel sobre o tema: Será que o Manuscrito de Voynich possui segredos ocultos e sombrios? Quem e quando o escreveu? Será que a linguagem empregue possui alguma relação com algum antigo idioma perdido ao longo da história? São muitas as perguntas, e o Manuscrito de Voynich permanece sendo hoje tudo aquilo que foi nos últimos séculos: um verdadeiro enigma. 10 palavras finalmente descodificadas? Agora, Stephen Bax, professor de linguística da Universidade de Bedfordshire, na Inglaterra, diz ter decifrado 10 palavras do manuscrito e pode ler um punhado de itens no texto Voynich, como as palavras coentro, heléboro e zimbro ao lado de desenhos de plantas. Ele diz que traduziu a palavra Touro escrita ao lado de uma ilustração das Plêiades, um aglomerado de estrelas na constelação de Touro. “Eu insisti na ideia de identificar os nomes no texto seguindo as abordagens históricas que já decifraram com sucesso hieróglifos egípcios e outros manuscritos misteriosos“, disse Bax em um comunicado. “O manuscrito tem um monte de ilustrações de estrelas e plantas”, acrescentou Bax. “Eu fui capaz de identificar algumas delas com os seus nomes ao olhar para manuscritos medievais de ervas em árabe e outros idiomas.” O manuscrito Voynich agora está em uma biblioteca de livros raros na Universidade de Yale. A datação por carbono provou que ele remonta ao século 15, e pesquisadores acreditam que foi escrito na Europa Central. Embora alguns estudiosos tenham sugerido que o livro seja uma fraude, outros dizem que o padrão das letras e palavras sugerem que foi escrito em uma linguagem real ou, pelo menos, uma cifra inventada. Bax observa que o manuscrito ainda está muito longe de ser compreendido, mas mantém a esperança de que outros linguistas vão trabalhar para decifrá-lo. Por enquanto, ele acha que o livro é “provavelmente um tratado sobre a natureza”.
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