Voynich manuscript

The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex, hand-written in an unknown script referred to as 'Voynichese'. The vellum on which it is written has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438). Stylistic analysis indicates it may have been composed in Italy during the Italian Renaissance. The origins, authorship, and purpose of the manuscript are debated. Hypotheses suggest that it is a script for a natural language or constructed language; an unread code, cypher, or other form of cryptography; or a meaningless hoax. The manuscript consists of around 240 pages, but there is evidence that pages are missing. Some pages are foldable sheets of varying sizes. Most of the pages have fantastical illustrations or diagrams, some crudely coloured, with sections of the manuscript showing people, fictitious plants, astrological symbols, etc. The text is written from left to right. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish-Lithuanian book dealer who purchased it in 1912. Since 1969, it has been held in Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The Voynich manuscript has been studied by professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. Codebreakers Prescott Currier, William Friedman, Elizebeth Friedman and John Tiltman were unsuccessful. The manuscript has never been demonstrably deciphered, and none of the proposed hypotheses have been independently verified. The mystery of its meaning and origin has excited the popular imagination, provoking study and speculation. In 2020, Yale University published the manuscript online in its entirety—225 pages—in their digital collections library. The codicology, or physical characteristics of the manuscript, has been studied by researchers. The manuscript measures , with hundreds of vellum pages collected into 18 quires. The total number of pages is around 240, but the exact number depends on how the manuscript's unusual foldouts are counted.