Instead, as New York Times best-selling author Deborah Harkness says in her introduction, the book “invites the reader to join us at the heart of the mystery. The essays that accompany the manuscript explain what we have learned about this work-from alchemical, cryptographic, forensic, and historical perspectives-but they provide few definitive answers. For the first time, this facsimile, complete with elaborate folding sections, allows readers to explore this enigma in all its stunning detail, from its one-of-a-kind “Voynichese” text to its illustrations of otherworldly plants, unfamiliar constellations, and naked women swimming though fantastical tubes and green baths. The book’s language has eluded decipherment, and its elaborate illustrations remain as baffling as they are beautiful. The manuscript appears and disappears throughout history, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to a secret sale of books in 1903 by the Society of Jesus in Rome. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich.

In addition, Orbis includes collection-level records for large archival collections. Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the “Voynich Manuscript,” the world’s most mysterious book. All cataloged books, pamphlets, periodicals, broadsides, published materials, single manuscript volumes, and small archival collections are discoverable in Orbis. If you find something interesting, you can bookmark or share the link in your address bar All images courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. The Voynich Manuscript is produced from new photographs of the entire original and accompanied by expert essays that invite anyone to understand and explore the enigma. Zoom and pan these high-resolution scans of the Voynich Manuscript. The first authorized copy of this mysterious, much-speculated-upon, one-of-a-kind, centuries-old puzzle.

Pdf voynich manuscript