Thanks to bOING bOING for the heads up on this one… (You don’t read bOING bOING? You should!! It’s AWESOME!)
That great New England “anomaly” known as The Voynich Manuscript is now online!
Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library finally put the entire Voynich Manuscript on the web for perusal. The Voynich Manuscript is a controversial book that is said to date back to the 15th century. Experts don’t know much about the book because the writing in it has been undecipherable, but it is interesting none-the-less. It looks to some like a medicinal or alchemy handbook. It’s full of hand-drawn plants, images, and other weird doodles and written in a text nobody can read. Some say its an elaborate hoax put out by the bookdealer for who the manuscript is named after. The book has been in Yale’s possession since 1969.
Mystery, hoax, or yet unknown universal truth, the Voynich Manuscript continues to fascinate and frustrate academics. Now everyone can join the ranks of the perplexed as they leaf through its pages on the web…and best of all, it’s right here in Connecticut.
Let the deciphering begin!
Cranky