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?
在耶魯大學拜內克古籍善本圖書館中 有本世界僅存、長達 240 頁的古書 放射性碳定年測算 書的歷史可追溯至 1420 年 書中羊皮紙上載錄珍貴的 圈圈手寫字跡 彷彿來自夢裡的手繪圖像 真假並存的植物 漂浮的城堡 沐浴的婦女 占星圖 星座輪 文字周圍畫有人臉的太陽月亮圖 這本長 24 公分、寬 16 公分的書 名為「伏尼契手稿」 這本書是史上最大的未解謎團之一 原因何在? 因為至今無人能理解這本書的內容 書名源自波蘭書商伏尼契 1912 年他在義大利的耶穌會學院 找到這本書 伏尼契深感疑惑 作者是誰? 在哪裡著作? 奇怪的字詞與生動的畫作代表甚麼? 書頁裡又藏著甚麼秘密? 伏尼契從學院的窮牧師 購得這份手稿 隨後帶到美國 在接著的一百多年裡 這本書持續困惑著美國的專家 密碼專家指出書中的文字 具備真實語言的所有特徵 只是這個語言無人知曉 這語言貌似真實是因為 真正語言的字母 與排列組合有一致的常規 而伏尼契手稿中的語言 具有一定的規律,並非隨機製造 除此以外,我們對這文字所知無幾 手稿字母的風格與大小不一 有些仿自其他文字 而大多数則獨一無二 大一點的字母被命名為絞架字形 手稿大篇幅地充斥著 渦卷形花字體 文字可能是由兩個或更多人書寫而成 而畫圖的則另有其人 多年來 對於伏尼契手稿的探討出現三大理論 理論一認為手稿文字是一種暗號 用特別設計的密碼掩藏機密 理論二認為整本手稿是一場騙局 用亂碼書寫引人上當騙錢 有人懷疑作者是位中世紀的詐欺犯 有人則說伏尼契本人就是幕後黑手 理論三指出手稿是用真實語言撰寫 但沒人知道是甚麼文字 也許中世紀學者試著為一個口頭方言 創造新的字母表 若是如此,伏尼契手稿 就像在復活節島 所發現的朗格朗格字符 在文化消失後,成為無法解讀的謎團 儘管沒人能讀懂伏尼契手稿 猜測仍如雪片般從各方飄來 有人相信伏尼契手稿的製作 是為了創造新文字 也有人推測伏尼契手稿是本百科全書 包含其創始文化的知識 有人認為手稿是由 13 世紀哲學家 羅傑·培根所撰寫的 他想試圖了解通用的文法規則 也可能是 16 世紀神祕主義者 約翰·迪伊所寫 他專事煉金與占卜 偏激的理論則認為 這本書是一群義大利女巫的傑作 或者甚至是火星人的 經過百年毫無結論的臆測後 對此謎團,科學家最近有新發現 放射性碳定年是第一大突破 再者,現代歷史學者 發現手稿內的信箋 最早可追溯至 1612 年的羅馬與布拉格 可能是當時神聖羅馬帝國的 魯道夫二世 將手稿傳給他的醫生雅各·賽奈皮斯 除了歷史方面的發現 語言學家最近也對手稿中的一些字符 做出初步的辨認 緊鄰七顆星旁拼為 Tauran 的 有可能是指金牛座 (Taurus) 即包含七顆星 名為昴宿星團的星宿嗎? 這個字指的會是圖中的矢車菊屬嗎? 不無可能,但進度緩慢 若能破解這本手稿 我們會發現甚麼? 一位 15 世紀插畫家的做夢筆記? 一本胡言亂語? 或一個被遺忘文化的失落知識? 你認為是甚麼?