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"The Secret to Immortallity"The Voynich Manuscript is a genuine aquiziam mystery. Most people seem to believe that this Manuscript, written by an unknown author in a mysterious language, is either a complex hoax or possibly a valuable insight into the secret science of the 15th or 16th Century. This seems to be the way that opinion is divided amongst scholars, internet researchers and everyday people. Many truly ridiculous and bizarre theories have been put forward and most of these have been very effectively debunked. The story is as follows: |  "Two halves of the Voynich Manuscript brought together - not in order." Source Materials: Wiki Commons |
When he returned to the USA, Voynich distributed photo-reproductions (not Photostat*) copies of the manuscripts pages to scholars whom he hoped would help him decode its strange alphabet and texts. Many code-breakers apparently took up the challenge with enthusiasm. They failed to decipher the strange language and since then, even with the latest modern technology, it still remains unreadable. Here are the key points regarding the manuscript:
 HISTORY 1602 – 1612: According to the various sources available, The Voynich Manuscript was first owned by Emperor Rudolf II of Bohemia (1552-1612) and that he paid 600 gold ducats for the book. By today’s standards this is an enormous amount of money and Rudolf II must have wanted the book very badly. 1608 – 1622: The next owner of the Manuscript appears to have been Jacobus de Tepenec who was a Director of his Rudolf II’s botanical gardens. It is also recorded that that de Tepenec was for some time the Emperor’s private physician. It makes sense that Rudolf II passed the manuscript into de Tepenec’s care due to its significant biological content. There is also another very sensible reason for this which becomes apparent later. 1622 – 1662: It appears that after the death of de Tepenec the Voynich Manuscript passed onto Georg Baresch, an alchemist little known in history, who lived in Prague in the early 17th century. As with the others before him Baresch valued the book and kept it safe but failed to decipher it. During this time he corresponded with a certain Jesuit philosopher Athanasius Kircher asking for his help. Whether he received assistance from Kircher is unknown. Shortly before Baresch’s death he passed it on, along with his other alchemical materials and library to his close friend Johannes Marcus Marci. 1662 – 1666: Johannes Marcus Marci (Jan Marek Marci 1595 – 1667) Please note that the date of his death is listed as 1677 on Wikipedia and other sites and that this is inaccurate and important to this article.) Johannes Marcus Marci was a professor of Charles University in Prague for most of his adult life. He was Dean of the medical school for at least eight terms-of-office and appointed as Rector in 1662. Much more importantly, he was also the private physician to the Emperors Ferdinand III and Leopold I. He claims in his letter to Athanasius Kircher dated 19 August 1666 that he had meant to send on the Voynich Manuscript as soon he had received it but had clearly been delayed.  1666 – 1680: Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) was a Jesuit philosopher that seems to have studied and written works on a vast range of subjects. He has been described as the “last man that knew everything” and was clearly a composer, physicist, Egyptologist, inventor, geographer, geologist, historian, adventurer, philosopher, proprietor of one of the first public museums, mathematician, naturalist, astronomer, archaeologist and author of more than 40 published works. According to various excellent websites on this subject, he makes no reference to the Voynich Manuscript in any of his works. Please remember that it was not known as the Voynich Manuscript at this time so it is certain that he may have referred to it by another name. However, if he really did make no comment on this “mysterious” book then it was for only two possible reasons. He either believed it was a rare and very valuable tome that needed to be kept secret or he considered it worthless and unworthy of mention. Prior to receiving the Voynich Manuscript and in 1651 the works of Kircher were relocated from his private residence to a hall for the purpose of displaying them. (The Museo Kircheriano) By this we assume that the hall became a library. It would appear that he chose not to add the Voynich Manuscript to the collection but kept it secret until his death in 1680. 1680 – 1773: Exactly who had the Manuscript in their possession and where it was kept during this period remain unknown. It is likely that the Voynich Manuscript was considered to contain such secret, arcane and even potentially dangerous knowledge that it was kept separate from less controversial and accessible documents. It is a reasonably well accepted “belief” that the Vatican and other religious orders did and still do keep secret libraries. The “Museo Kircheriano” (museum of Kircher) still seems to have existed as late as 1761 as there is a record of Anton Maria Ambrogi being appointed as curator. 1773: Buonanni's catalogue of the museum was reissued by Giovanni Antonio Battara. There is no mention of the “mysterious book”. 1773: On the 21st of July 1773 the Jesuit Order was dissolved on the Orders of Pope Clement XIV in response to the ever increasing demands from the Heads of many European states. It is pure speculation but very likely that the secret libraries of the Jesuits were hidden and may have remained so until today. However it does appear likely that the Voynich Manuscript was saved and moved to the private collections of any number of people. There is the suggestion that it may have fallen into the hands of Cardinal Zelada who may have moved the Voynich Manuscript to his private library in Toledo. Just a likely is that it was transferred to the Collegio Romano (Roman College). Wherever it was it was deemed to be important enough to save and keep secret. 1795 – 1797: This period marks the dramatic rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte and the start of his significant military campaigns. In 1796 Napoleon took command of the Army of Italy and successfully invaded Italy. However he did not then lead the army on and dethrone the Pope as ordered to. It was not until February of the following year that General Berthier captured Rome and took Pius VI prisoner who later fell sick and died in early 1797. There is no doubt that the activities of Napoleon terrified the Papal orders and plunged Europe into years of military and political turmoil. Treasures and libraries were plundered but just as many were hidden in private homes. It is likely that the Voynich Manuscript was one of the documents kept hidden  ...  1799: In this year Napoleon was installed as First Consul after staging a coup d'état. 1803: Napoleon was crowned Emperor 1812: Napoleon invaded Russia but was doomed to fail 1814: The Napoleonic era came to an end. 1814: The Jesuit Order was restored by Pius VII 1815: Pope Pius VII authorised the return of houses, property and other belongings to the newly restored Jesuit Order 1824 – 1853: The Society of Jesus is fully restored and many of their libraries and colleges are returned to them including the, Collegio Romano and the Oratorio del Caravita. The 'Seminario Romano', previously located between the S.Ignazio and the Pantheon (via Del Seminario), is moved to the Apollinare near Piazza Navona. The Collegio Germanico is moved to the palazzo Borromeo, also in via Del Seminario. 1853: P. Beckx S.J. became the General of the Jesuit society against the backdrop of a Europe that was once again at war. 1858: This date marked the beginning of the Italian Wars of Unification. After an unsatisfactory campaign against Austria that only gained him the province of Lombardy, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy sent his forces to fight the papal army at Castelfidardo and drove the Pope into Vatican City. As a result of these actions he was excommunicated and the divide between Victor Emmanuel and the Catholic Church widened considerably. 1861: The Kingdom of Italy was officially established and Victor Emmanuel II as its king. 1865: The previous twenty years had seen many military campaigns and there is little doubt that the Jesuits once again feared for their libraries, collections and other treasures. In 1865 the Villa Mondragone is made available to Jesuits by its owner, Marcantonio di Borghese the descendant of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V. 1866: By this date the Villa Mondragone had fallen into disrepair and was sold to the Jesuits. (This is a reference from the Villa’s website - www.villamondragone.com/history - other references place the date of purchase as 1896) 1871: To complete the unification of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II captured and entered Rome on the 20th of September 1871 and established it as his new capital city. One of his first actions was the confiscation of property belonging to the Papal orders. However, the private possessions of the members were exempt. As such, many valuable works and treasures were transferred to individuals who arranged to have these “valuables’ stored in private houses such as the Villa Mondragone. One such individual who was extremely active in this was the General of the Jesuit Society (order) and it may have been him personally hat had the Voynich manuscript transferred. 1887: Beckx died at the age of 92. 1889: The Biography of Beckx was written by Verstraeten. 1911 – 1912: According to Voynich; in order to fund ongoing restorations to the Villa the Jesuits agreed to sell off a small part of their collections on conditions of absolute secrecy. The Voynich Manuscript had resurfaced at the Villa and was one of the documents purchased by Wilfrid Voynich, a book dealer from America. 1915: The Voynich Manuscript, along with other documents acquired from the Villa Mondragone was displayed at the Art institute of Chicago. This was part of Voynich’s campaign to have the Manuscript recognized as a major document in the history of the sciences. According to various sources he was convinced that it had been written by Roger Bacon the 13th century English philosopher and Franciscan friar who was also known as Doctor Mirabilis. (Latin for "wonderful teacher") 1921: Supported by two scientists who had claimed they could read the Manuscript, Voynich presented it to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. They were later proved wrong. 1922 – 1931: During this period Voynich appears to have committed a large part of his time to establishing the history of the Manuscript and indeed managed to trace it back to the private collections of P. Beckx. Sadly, for all his work neither he nor any person that he involved in his quest managed to decipher the Manuscript. Wilfrid Voynich died in 1931 and the Manuscript passed to his wife Ethel 1931: After her husband’s death, Ethel Voynich (a famous 18th century novelist and supporter of revolutionary causes) took a copy of the Manuscript to the Catholic University in Washington and showed it to Prof. Henri Hyvernat. Both he and his assistant Theodore Petersen were immediately intrigued by it. Petersen appears to have kept the copy for a while, and made a complete hand traced transcription of it. 1960: When Ethel Voynich died in 1961 Ms Anne Nill inherited the Manuscript. An old friend of Ethel (and Voynich’s secretary prior to his death), Ms. Nill immediately began to seek a buyer for the Manuscript. She also now had in her possession a letter from Ethel explaining where the manuscript had really come from – The Villa Mondragone! 1961: A buyer, Hans P. Kraus was eventually found and agreed suitable by Ms. Nill (and the committee?) and in 1961 he purchased the Voynich Manuscript believing it to be of “Great Worth”. Kraus highly valued the Manuscript and tried to sell it for a large ammount but was not successful. He had promised that a significant part of the profit he might make would be given to Anne Nill, but she died only one year after Ethel Voynich. During this period the Voynich Manuscript spent most of its time in a New York Bank Vault. 1963: Researchers found a strange reference in Kraus' autobiography, which claims that he visited a certain Mgr. Ruysschaert in Rome in 1963. It was Ruysschaert who had published the catalogue of the Latin manuscripts which the Vatican library acquired in 1912 from the Collegio Romano. Kraus supposedly asked him about the Voynich Manuscript and Ruysschaert apparently thought it was still owned by the Vatican library to the extent that he went to get it only to find it missing. 1969: Kraus finally donated the Voynich Manuscript (and associated documents) to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript library of Yale University. It is still there today together with other material related to the document, such as Voynich's notebooks and the many letters he sent and received.  ... SOME OF THE THEORIES 1919: William Romaine Newbold, a professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania studied photo-reproductions of the Voynich manuscript and claimed the meaning of the book could be determined through the use of a microscope that revealed irregularities in the edges of the letters and complicated anagrams. He supported Voynich’s belief that the book was the work of Roger Bacon. 1931: John Manly studied the work of Newbold and finally published an article pointing out the weaknesses of the theory. Most importantly he showed that the use of anagrams could create almost any meaning that the cryptologist wished to find in the manuscript. Newbold and his followers were disgraced and other serious scholars “scared off” from studying the Voynich Manuscript. 1943: Joseph Feely published a book that claimed he had deciphered the Voynich Manuscript using a highly abbreviated form of Latin and the use of a simple substitution code. He implied that the author was indeed Roger Bacon but did not effectively explain the secrets of the content. His findings were fully rejected by the scientific community. 1944: William (1891-1969) and Elizebeth Friedman (1892 –1980) were both famous cryptographers and the first to suggest that the text was written in a synthetic but precise language that was based on well defined and strictly logical principles. This was proposed whilst they were working with the FSG (First Study Group) that they formed at this time. 1953: Prof. Leonell C. Strong, a medical scientist from Yale University, proposed a complicated poly-alphabetic substitution cipher. According to his findings the Voynich Manuscript was the work of Anthony Askham, the less well-known brother of Roger Askham the English scholar and didactic writer. Strong’s “method” has never been fully revealed and is largely considered dubious and over dependent on transcription accuracy. 1978: John Stojko suggested in his book published in 1978 that the Voynich Manuscript was actually a series of letters originally written in old Ukrainian. These, he claimed, could be deciphered by removing all the vowels and then writing the consonants in a secret alphabet. His findings have not found popular support as his method is arbitrary and, as such, able to create anything. 1995: Sergio Toresella, an expert in medieval herbals inspected the Voynich Manuscript at the Beinecke library and produced an article regarding “alchemical herbals”' of the Middle Ages. He believed that the purpose of the book was to impress the gullible clientele of a charlatan doctor or quack. There is a lot to be said for this concept. PLEASE NOTE … We haven’t listed all the theories and those people that have proposed them. As we have stated on other pages, it is our intention to bring mysteries to your attention not to document them in every way – that would be the work of many lifetimes. There are some wonderfully detailed websites dedicated to this mysterious book and we recommend the very informative one created by René Zandbergen (www.voynich.nu) that we found most helpful in preparing this webpage. Before we begin this next section we want to point out that there are several websites out there on the Internet that promise to be able to reveal the mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript in exchange for some money. Let us quote you that great Latin phrase popular at the time that the Voynich Manuscript was written: “Caveat Emptor” – Let the buyer beware! 2008: THE AQUIZIAM ASSESSMENT Before we begin we want to say that we have not studied the actual document(s) or even attempted to decipher the writing. Our proposal is based entirely on the history of the period and the “conditions of the time” which is why we’ve largely set out this page as a chronology. We hope that our thoughts may add a little something to the knowledge that is “out there”. This is our view … The 1400’s were a period of intense investigation into the natural and supernatural world and the centre of this interest was Western Europe. This was the Renaissance period and the time of Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364 – 1437), Poggio Bracciolini (1380 – 1459), Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519), Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469 –1527) and Nicolaus Copernicus (February 1473 – 1543). It was a time of great scientific discovery and vast misunderstanding. Science and magic were the good and evil twins of knowledge. Alchemy thrived in hidden laboratories as its followers sought the great prizes: How to transmute base metals into gold, how to cure all illnesses and what would give a person immortality? Not everyone agreed with these quests. In particular, the Catholic Church hated the Idea of Earthly Immortality which would render their creed redundant. In 1478 the Spanish Inquisition came into existence with the sole purpose of hunting down and ridding the World of heretics, witches and any person that did not believe in the Word of the Christian God. While the focus of this movement remained in Spain it had significant support in other European countries. It lasted for nearly 360 years until it was final disbanded as late as 1834. The cruel fact is that the emerging scientists and students of biology, anatomy and medicine were often seen as wizards or magicians who drew their arcane knowledge from liaisons with the demon realm. No … the Church was not openly supportive of this challenge to God’s ultimate power. In public these “seekers” were hunted and tortured for their dissident beliefs but in reality certain sections of the Catholic Church, such as the Jesuits, were very interested in this exploration of nature and reality. Just look at Kircher’s interests to see the truth of this. In fact, history has shown that this suppression was not about God but about the power of the Pope. This is the period during which the Voynich Manuscript first appears. It is also very important to point out something that many modern scholars overlook – language is constantly changing. We don’t just mean the difficulty that a modern American might have when reading a 12th century English text, we mean that the actually denotation and connotation of words has changed over the years. In addition, there are literally hundreds if not thousands of words that are no longer used and are now forgotten. Words like mumpsimus, scandaroon, stangster, upas and twychild have all just slipped away. (Forgotten English; Jeffrey Kacirk) Now add dialect and phonetics. France still recognizes seven dialects and there are probably more in Italian. In 1450 there were an estimated 70 complex dialects in France alone (P. Veyger, 1992). It is very possible that in 1480 AD there still existed dialects of French, Italian and Latin that we would find as unintelligible as ancient Egyptian was before the discovery of the Rosetta stone.  We would now like to introduce a further concept – plant biology. It was during this period that communication with the mystical realms of India, Asia and the other faraway places was becoming more common. Returning travelers would speak of impossible animals, powerful medicines and herbs that had strange and unusual properties. Such knowledge from afar would have seemed incredibly valuable. It is our belief and opinion that the Voynich Manuscript was originally the work of a person who dedicated himself to recording the information and tales of returning travelers (perhaps just one remarkable traveler). This would explain the accuracy of some of the “Western plants” drawn in the book (personal experience) and also the appearance of strange and exotic plants that are still unrecognizable. (Verbal descriptions) Given the layout and contents of the book it is likely to be a compendium of quasi-spiritual medical information. The “Recipes” section at the end of the Manuscript is a description of how to prepare wondrous medicines and cures. Please understand that alchemists of the time believed that celestial conditions could impact on the substances of nature such as Fire, Water, Earth and Air. This explains why a section on apparent astronomy is included. In particular, the images of “Tubes and Women” is a very strong symbolism for primitive anatomy. It is very possible that the plants depicted never existed or were drawn based on the memory and descriptions of the travelers. It is also possible that they once existed but are now extinct. It is a recognized fact that certain “special” plants and creatures were kept hidden from the common people. If you wish to confirm this then simply look up the story of the rediscovery of the herd of “Pere David's” deer that were kept hidden in the Imperial Chinese Reserves until they were the only ones remaining on this planet. The species is officially extinct in the wild (WWF 2008). Our theory is that the Voynich Manuscript was originally written in a “far” dialect now lost to us and at the same time transcribed using an invented script. It is likely that it was written by a person (scribe) from a religious order that had the ability to visualize alternate letters. (This can be done with practice and is not as hard as it sounds – we’ve had a go without any trouble and so did J. R. R. Tolkien – author of the Lord of the Rings). The words are very likely to have sometimes been spelt phonetically and this explains the discrepancies and similarities. The reason for this type of writing is twofold. Firstly it prevented the enemies of knowledge from understanding what had been written and secondly, it made the Manuscript appear more mystic and therefore more valuable. We believe that the author probably claimed that the recipes offered cures to terrifying illnesses and may have even included a recipe for the “Elixir of Life” – immortality! This would explain why aging men were so keen to translate it. Whether the author truly believed that it held the secret of immortality or not is almost academic. We do believe that the future owners of the book did believe that it held the secret of extending life. This is validated as in almost all cases the Voynich Manuscript is passed on just before or just after the death of the owner. Naturally the Jesuits and Roman Catholic Church would want it – if only to keep it out of the hands of the emerging quasi-scientific community. There is the tiny possibility that the Voynich Manuscript does actually contain cures for dangerous diseases and maybe even a way to extend human life. Scientists are only recently beginning to really study ancient Chinese and Asian herbal medicine and in doing so realizing that there is a lot to be learnt. It is our opinion that the Voynich Manuscript was believed to contain a recipe for the Elixir of Life. This would explain why Rudolf II was prepared to pay so much for it and why it was given to his botanist and private physician. It also explains why an alchemist was called in to try and decipher it and why it was then passed onto yet another royal doctor (Marci). Finally, it explains Kircher’s interest in it and why it was deemed too dangerous to be kept in a public library. As the years passed and science became established the owners of the Voynich Manuscript no longer saw it as a threat to their religion but as a curiosity and carelessly allowed it to fall into the hands of an American book dealer. Was it originally written to impress the gullible or was it the clandestine record of how to defeat death? We will probably never know the true secret. What we can surmise is that generations of owners have believed it contained knowledge worth gold, Papal protection and possibly even dying for. SOME FOOTNOTES 1. The Voynich Manuscript is not the only mystical and unexplained document from this period. The little known Ripley Scroll is just as mysterious as the Voynich Manuscript; as are the carvings on the tombstone of Nicholas Flamel, the alchemist that some believe really did discover the secret of the Philosophers Stone – immortality. (Yes … this is the same Nicholas Flamel referred to in the strangely popular Harry Potter books by British author J. K. Rowling.)  ... 2. If, as we suggest, the language of the author is now lost to us then translation becomes near impossible. The best chance for succeeding would be to use the same method employed by the FBI and create a character and personality profile. So, seek out a person in the historical record of this time that was a linguist, reasonably well educated and known for his interest in the recollections of travelers. This person was most likely a Church educated student turned alchemist or historian. This individual had enough status to be able to communicate with important people such as de Tepenec and was probably in Prague at the same time he was. The hometown of this person would be a very remote district – possibly even Middle Eastern. (And so on.) We agree that this would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, if such a person was identified it would then be possible to see if they were originally the speaker of a currently unknown dialect. Once the dialect was found the rest should be relatively simple. Now… we are prepared to bet that only somebody who really believed that the Voynich Manuscript contained the Secret of Life would be prepared to go to all that trouble. 3. There is every chance that this whole thing could have been a 15th Century scam to take money off a foolish Emperor. 4. There is a slim chance that this "Voynich Manuscript" may just contain the secret to immortality! 5. Where are the missing pages? What was written on them? Why were they removed? These could be the most important questions on this page. *1. René Zandbergen’s website refers to “Photostats” made in */- 1919. He probably means photographic reproductions or Rectigraphs as true “Photostat” technology was not invented until 1958 - Chester Carlson's xerographic machine. It could be that “Photostat” is simply used as a generic term. |
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