Deep inside Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library lies the only copy of a 240-page tome. Recently carbon dated to around 1420, its vellum pages features looping handwriting and hand-drawn images seemingly stolen from a dream. Real and imaginary plants, floating castles, bathing women, astrology diagrams, zodiac rings, and suns and moons with faces accompany the text. This 24x16 centimeter book is called the Voynich manuscript, and its one of history's biggest unsolved mysteries. The reason why? No one can figure out what it says. The name comes from Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish bookseller who came across the document at a Jesuit college in Italy in 1912. He was puzzled. Who wrote it? Where was it made? What do these bizarre words and vibrant drawings represent? What secrets do its pages contain? He purchased the manuscript from the cash-strapped priest at the college, and eventually brought it to the U.S., where experts have continued to puzzle over it for more than a century. Cryptologists say the writing has all the characteristics of a real language, just one that no one's ever seen before. What makes it seem real is that in actual languages, letters and groups of letters appear with consistent frequencies, and the language in the Voynich manuscript has patterns you wouldn't find from a random letter generator. Other than that, we know little more than what we can see. The letters are varied in style and height. Some are borrowed from other scripts, but many are unique. The taller letters have been named gallows characters. The manuscript is highly decorated throughout with scroll-like embellishments. It appears to be written by two or more hands, with the painting done by yet another party. Over the years, three main theories about the manuscript's text have emerged. The first is that it's written in cypher, a secret code deliberately designed to hide secret meaning. The second is that the document is a hoax written in gibberish to make money off a gullible buyer. Some speculate the author was a medieval con man. Others, that it was Voynich himself. The third theory is that the manuscript is written in an actual language, but in an unknown script. Perhaps medieval scholars were attempting to create an alphabet for a language that was spoken but not yet written. In that case, the Voynich manuscript might be like the rongorongo script invented on Easter Island, now unreadable after the culture that made it collapsed. Though no one can read the Voynich manuscript, that hasn't stopped people from guessing what it might say. Those who believe the manuscript was an attempt to create a new form of written language speculate that it might be an encyclopedia containing the knowledge of the culture that produced it. Others believe it was written by the 13th century philosopher Roger Bacon, who attempted to understand the universal laws of grammar, or in the 16th century by the Elizabethan mystic John Dee, who practiced alchemy and divination. More fringe theories that the book was written by a coven of Italian witches, or even by Martians. After 100 years of frustration, scientists have recently shed a little light on the mystery. The first breakthrough was the carbon dating. Also, contemporary historians have traced the provenance of the manuscript back through Rome and Prague to as early as 1612, when it was perhaps passed from Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to his physician, Jacobus Sinapius. In addition to these historical breakthroughs, linguistic researchers recently proposed the provisional identification of a few of the manuscript's words. Could the letters beside these seven stars spell Tauran, a name for Taurus, a constellation that includes the seven stars called the Pleiades? Could this word be Centaurun for the Centaurea plant in the picture? Perhaps, but progress is slow. If we can crack its code, what might we find? The dream journal of a 15th-century illustrator? A bunch of nonsense? Or the lost knowledge of a forgotten culture? What do you think it is?
喺耶魯大學嘅 拜內克古籍缮本圖書館度 有本 240 頁嘅孤本書 經碳年代測定法鑑定為 大概 1420 年嘅書 佢嘅牛皮頁上有圈形嘅字跡 有好似夢境嘅圖案 有真嘅同想像出來嘅植物 有空中漂浮嘅城堡 喺度沖涼嘅女人 占星術圖 星座戒指 同有人面嘅日月 呢個長 24 厘米,闊 16 厘米 嘅書叫做伏尼契手稿 係歷史上最大嘅未解之謎之一 點解呢? 因為冇人知道呢本書講咩 書名來自一個叫 威爾弗雷德.伏尼契嘅人 佢係個波蘭嘅書商 喺 1912 年喺意大利嘅 一個耶穌會學校度撞啱見到呢本書 呢本書使佢困惑 邊個寫咗呢本書嚟? 喺邊度寫嘅? 呢哋古怪嘅文字 同充滿活力嘅圖案代表咩? 書裡邊到底有咩秘密? 教會學校手頭緊 於是賣咗個手稿畀佢 之後佢帶咗手稿去美國 喺美国,專家繼續被本書所困惑 密碼學家話,書裡文字 有一個真正語言含有嘅全部特徵 只不過從來冇人見過呢個語言 點解噉講嚟? 因為喺真實嘅語言裡邊 文字或者特定嘅文字組合 會以一定嘅頻率出現 伏尼契手稿裡邊嘅語言含有嘅特徵 唔可能係隨機生成 除咗呢啲,其他就唔清楚喇 字母嘅風格同高矮各有唔同 有啲字母係抄自其他語言 但係好多字母係獨一無二嘅 高一啲嘅字母被稱為「托架抄本」 呢部手稿從頭到尾 都有漩渦形嘅裝飾圖案 佢好似有兩個人以上嘅筆跡 而畫畫就係另外一班人 噉多年以来, 關於呢本書有三種推測 第一种,呢本書用密文 專登掩蓋某啲秘密 第二种,呢本書就係 整出來呃人錢財嘅局 有人認為啲作者就係個中世紀嘅老千 有人認為係伏尼契自己設局 第三种推測係 呢個手稿確實係一種特殊語言寫嘅 只不過冇人明 又或者,寫呢本書嘅人係 一群嘗試為一種口頭語言 建立字母嘅中世紀學者 如果係噉,伏尼契手稿就可能 好似復活島嘅朗格朗格手稿 因為當年嘅文明已經消失 宜家就冇人睇得明 儘管冇人明白伏尼契手稿 但係有好多人仲喺度估佢講咩 有人認為佢喺度創造 一種新嘅書面語言 伏尼契手稿又可能係個 創造呢種語言嘅文化嘅百科全書 仲有人諗伏尼契手稿嘅作者 係 13 世紀哲學家羅傑培根 培根曾經嘗試理解 所有語言共有嘅語法法則 手稿嘅作者又可能係 16 世紀 伊麗莎白時代嘅神秘主義者尊迪 尊迪曾經研究過煉藥術同占卜術 更加邊緣嘅理論認為 作者係一班意大利嘅巫婆 甚至有人諗作者係火星人 度橋度咗成百年後 啲科學家終於有咗啲頭緒 第一個突破就係用碳素測年法 測到呢份手稿嘅起源 大概喺 1612 年嘅羅馬或者布拉格 佢可能係神聖羅馬帝國皇帝魯道夫二世 轉手畀佢嘅醫生 雅各布斯.希納皮亞斯 除咗呢哋突破 啲語言學家啱啱 暫定識別咗手稿裡邊嘅幾個文字 呢度七粒星隔离嘅文字 會唔會係 Tauran 既係金牛座嘅别稱 一個包含昴宿星團嘅星座? 呢個字會唔會係 Centaurun 即係圖裡邊嘅矢車菊? 有可能嘅,不過進展就好慢 如果我哋破解咗密碼,我哋會發現咩? 一個 15 世纪插圖家嘅夢記? 一堆胡言亂語? 仲係一個被遺忘嘅文明嘅 失傳嘅知識? 你點睇嚟?