Voynich Manuscript Finally Decoded

Voynich manuscript: the solution

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I first came across the Voynich manuscript some fifteen years ago when, as a professional history researcher, I was looking into some of the more bizarre claims by commentators about some of my ancestors – John Florio (1553–1625) and Jane Fromond (1555–1604/5), the wife of Dr John Dee and grand-daughter of Thomas Fromond, the great English herbalist. I am also a muralist and war artist with an understanding of the workings of picture narration, an advantage I was able to capitalize on for my research. A chance remark just over three years ago brought me a com*mission from a television production company to analyse the illustrations of the Voynich manuscript and examine the commentators’ theories. By this time the manuscript had been carbon-dated to the early fifteenth century. One of the more notable aspects of the manuscript were the illustrations on a bathing theme, so it seemed logical to have a look at the bathing practices of the medieval period. It became fairly obvious very early on that I had entered the realms of medieval medicine.

The general gist of the article is that the Voynish Manuscript is just one of many medieval medical manuals, all of which cribbed heavily from earlier and contemporary sources, which cribbed from earlier and contemporary sources, and so on, and the influences can be traced by way of language and illustrations. The author notes numerous similarities and apparent outright plagiarism from earlier, well-known medical manuals. In this case, it appears to be specifically a manual of womens's/gynecological health.

Something that has been speculated for quite some time, and not even remotely surprising. The reason that it has withstood decryption for so long was that the text consisted largely of abbreviations and ligatures, rather than actual words; another common practice for medical writing.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2xRZv0v