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Speaker 1: Imagine a world where a book bound in this really

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ancient vellum holds secret so profound, so utterly unlike anything

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we know that it's resisted while every attempt at understanding

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for over six hundred years.

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Speaker 2: Six centuries.

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Speaker 1: It's incredible, locked away, maybe in a metal safety deposit box.

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And there's this envelope with just seven words on it

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do not open until after Ethel's death. Chilling almost an

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inside this book a silent challenge really to the sharpest minds,

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the most dedicated codebreakers, the smartest linguists. What if you

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know such an enigma truly existed, a manuscript filled with

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symbols illustrations that feel well, they feel both familiar and

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just astonishingly alien, defying all classification.

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Speaker 2: Well, it does exist. It's called the Voynish Manuscript. And

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it's not just some legend. It's a real, absolutely, one

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of a kind enigma, known globally really for its completely

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undecipherable language and these fantastical, often really bizarre illustrations.

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Speaker 1: Right, and where is it now today?

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Speaker 2: It rests in the meticulously controlled environment of Yale University's

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Benecki Rare Book and Manuscript Library, now direct physical access

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that's strictly limited. It's incredibly fragile understandable, but thankfully high

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resolution digital scans are available online, so it offers a

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window into this profound and perplexing thing for anyone curious

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enough to look. It truly stands as well a singular

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object in the history of human knowledge, a testament to

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enduring mystery.

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Speaker 1: And our mission today you are curious listener, is to

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embark on a deep dive into this very mystery. We're

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going to unpack the incredible sort of winding journey of

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this book's ownership, trace its path from hidden Jesuit libraries

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to the hands of modern rare book dealers.

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Speaker 2: It's quite a story.

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Speaker 1: Well dell into the absolutely wild, sometimes unsettling illustrations that

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just seem to defy all scientific and historical context. Then

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we'll explore the cutting edge and sometimes yeah, wildly ambitious

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attempts to translated secret.

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Speaker 2: The translation attempts are fascinating.

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Speaker 1: In themselves, and finally, will weigh the most compelling and yes,

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some of the most unconventional theories about what it's actually for.

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It's true purpose. This isn't just about you know, understanding

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a book. It's about humanities and enduring quest for knowledge,

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the thrill of the unknown, and this persistent fascination with

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an enigma that has just refused to yield its secrets. Okay,

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let's unpack this. So our story in its more recent chapters,

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really kicks off in the nineteen sixties with a gentleman

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named Hans P. Krauss. Now, Kraus wasn't just any book collector,

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you know, he was a serious rare book dealer, known

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for his extraordinary expertise in finding and acquiring.

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Speaker 2: Valuable texts, the big name in the field.

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Speaker 1: Exactly in nineteen sixty one, he gets his hands on

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the Voyage manuscript. He saw his immense historical value, its

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mysterious value, and he envisioned a very substantial return on

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his investment, a big profit.

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Speaker 2: He paid twenty four than five hundred dollars for it

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back then, which is roughly two hundred and sixty thousand

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dollars today. His plan sell it for something like one

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point four million. Ambitious, very ambitious. But despite his expertise

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and these grand plans, Kraus ultimately couldn't find a buyer,

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couldn't shift it, which, you know, that says something in itself,

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given how unique it is, and the price.

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Speaker 1: Tag, yeah, it is interesting.

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Speaker 2: After years of trying, in nineteen sixty nine, he decided

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to donate it to Yale University and that's where it's

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been preserved ever since. What's truly intriguing, though, is who

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Kraus got it from. And this is where the story

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gets really interwoven, involving those three figures most closely linked

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to its modern reappearance.

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Speaker 1: Right the key players Wilfred M.

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Speaker 2: Voyage, the manuscript's namesake, his wife Ethel, Lillian Voyage and

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their longtime associate, and Neil. This trio holds the immediate

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key to its recent past, leading us straight back to

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those mysterious instructions found with the book. Do not open

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until after Ethel's death.

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Speaker 1: That directive really adds a layer of personal intrigue, doesn't it.

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It feels like something out of a novel.

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Speaker 2: It really does.

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Speaker 1: So to understand that, we need to journey back a

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bit further to nineteen twelve and the man himself, Wilford M. Voyage.

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He was a Polish book dealer, had a really keen

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eye for the rare and unusual. His destination was this

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old Jesuit retreat near Rome, villa Undergoney. He had heard

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that the Jesuit Order was selling off some of their

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massive manuscript collection to fund the villa's.

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Speaker 2: Upkeep right, a practical necessity for them.

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Speaker 1: So, sensing this unique opportunity, Voyage travels to Italy, eager

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to browse through centuries of accumulated knowledge. He ends up

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buying about thirty manuscript and a bundle deal, and among them,

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one peculiar book just immediately stood out before he got it.

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This book didn't even really have a name, did it.

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Speaker 2: No, it's just another manuscript waiting to be rediscovered. What's

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immediately striking is that Voinage, with his deep knowledge of

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historical texts, instantly saw how unique it was. Neither the

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script nor the illustrations look like anything he'd ever encountered

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in his whole career.

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Speaker 1: Wow, instant recognition of something weird.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, and this sparked him a truly obsessive pursuit to

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decipher it. He dedicated himself tirelessly seeking help from well

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everywhere he could think of scholar's, cryptographer's linguist.

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Speaker 1: He really went all out, he did.

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Speaker 2: His efforts were profound. He publicly displayed the manuscript talked

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about how enigmatic it was, sent out copies to anyone

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he thought might offer a breakthrough. Yet despite this intense,

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almost near obsessive dedication, Wilfrid Voinage never managed to decipher

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a single word.

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Speaker 1: Not one word, after all, that not one.

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Speaker 2: He died in nineteen thirty with the manuscript secrets still

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completely locked away, a silent testament to his unyielding but

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ultimately unfulfilled quest.

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Speaker 1: And after Wilfrid's passing, the manuscript went to his wife,

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Ethel Lillian Voyage. Now, unlike Wilfrid, Ethel seemed well less

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interested in the decoding part, perhaps maybe just overwhelms by

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how impenetrable it was, or maybe just tired of her

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husband's decades long obsession.

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Speaker 2: Could be She continued managing the book business, her late

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husband's business, and she did try to sell the manuscript,

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but she ran into the exact same problem Wilfrid had,

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which was nobody wanted to buy a book they couldn't read,

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especially after the kind of money they were likely asking right.

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Speaker 1: So, faced with this unsellable mystery, what did she do?

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Speaker 2: She locked it away in that metal safety deposit box,

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along with that very specific letter addressed to Anne Neil,

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instructing that it only be opened upon Ethel's death. It

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really is like something out of a classic mystery novel,

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isn't it?

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Speaker 1: Absolutely And Anne Neil's role here is pretty.

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Speaker 2: Crucial, then, oh, absolutely crucial. She wasn't just some acquaintance.

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She'd been Wilfred's longtime secretary, deeply involved in the day

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to day running of his rare book.

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Speaker 1: Business, so she knew the manuscript well.

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Speaker 2: Presumably after Wilfrid diet her connection deepened. She became Ethel's

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business partner, helping on on the enterprise, and on a

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more personal level, she became Ethel's leaving companion during Ethel's

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later years. So it was Anne Neil who, after Ethel

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pass away, eventually facilitated the sale of the manuscript to

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Hans P. Kraus in nineteen sixty one, bringing this full

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circle to its acquisition by Yale and its sort of

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public reemergence.

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Speaker 1: But the Voyniche Manuscript's long, long journey definitely didn't start

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with Wilfred when he bought it from the Jesuits at

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Villa Mondragon. He also found something else inside, right, A

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cover letter, that's right, a.

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Speaker 2: Cover letter tucked inside. And this letter, dated around sixteen

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sixty six, is like a historical treasure map. It offers

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these tantalizing clues about the manuscript's much earlier life.

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Speaker 1: Who was it addressed to?

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Speaker 2: It was addressed to Athanagis Kurture, a really renowned Jesuit scholar,

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celebrated for his huge intellect and his work as an

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expert in Eastern languages. He famously tried to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so a serious scholar, very serious.

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Speaker 2: The letter explained how the manuscript came into Kuircher's massive

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collection at the Collegio Romano, which is now the Pontifical

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Gregorian University in Rome. But just like everyone who followed, Kircher,

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despite his considerable talents, couldn't decipher it.

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Speaker 1: So even he was stumped completely, And.

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Speaker 2: So the Voyage Manuscript just became another fascinating but ultimately

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unreadable volume in his huge library, sitting there untouched for centuries.

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Speaker 1: And this period in its history it highlights a pretty

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significant historical moment, doesn't it, The hiding of treasures?

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Speaker 2: It really does. In eighteen seventy, the newly unified Italian

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government started systematically seizing church properties all over the country

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to stop their invaluable libraries from being confiscated. The Jesuits

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basically undertook this clandestine.

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Speaker 1: Operation, really smuggling books.

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Speaker 2: Essentially, yes, secretly relocating their most precious books, including the

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Voyage Manuscript. These treasures were spirited away to private collections,

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hidden safely from government hands.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: The Voynage manuscript specifically found it safe place at Villa

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Mondragone in Frascotti, Italy, which housed the Jesuits Gislieri College,

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and there it stayed largely forgotten, gathering dust until Wilfrid

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Voyage stumbled upon it in nineteen twelve.

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Speaker 1: Amazing. It underscores the manuscript's narrow escapes, doesn't it. It

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could have easily been confiscated or just lost entirely. It

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journeyed through this relative obscurity.

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Speaker 2: Almost disappeared from history.

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Speaker 1: So that cover letter Wilfrid found it revealed even earlier owners, right,

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taking us further back.

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Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, that same letter connects us to two more

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prior owners. The letter to Kuirture was actually written by

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Johannas Marcus Marcy. He was a distinguished physician and at

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that time, the head of Charles University in Prague.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Prague, so it was in Bohemia before Rome.

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Speaker 2: Seems so is Marcy who sent the manuscript to Kirccure,

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and Marcy in turn had gotten it from his friend,

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a Prague based alchemist named George.

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Speaker 1: Boresh, an alchemist. Now it's getting interesting.

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Speaker 2: Right after Boresh passed away, probably in the sixteen thirties,

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Marcy sent it off to Kuirture. Borresh himself had become

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utterly consumed by the manuscript's strange contents. He spent years

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trying to decode it.

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Speaker 1: Another obsessive owner.

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Speaker 2: Convinced it held valuable hidden knowledge. He was actually the

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first person we know of who reached out to Kirsher

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for help. He sent his own letter and even a

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copy of some pages from the manuscript. So Borresh holds

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the distinction of being the first confirmed owner in this

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known chain, a man already deep into the world of

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ancient secrets.

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Speaker 1: But Borresh wasn't the creator, obviously, And this is where

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the trail gets a bit well speculative, right using modern tech.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, modern techniques like multi spectral imaging, which uses different

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light wavelengths to see faded or hidden text. Have found

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these faint traces of an erased signature on.

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Speaker 1: The very first page, whose signature.

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Speaker 2: It points to a man named Jakub Horski to Tepenek

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as a likely previous owner, probably in the early sixteen hundreds.

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There were also some Latin letters and voyinage symbols mixed in,

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suggesting an early and likely frustrated attempt at deciphering.

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Speaker 1: Him and who was Tepanek.

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Speaker 2: Notably, he was the personal doctor of Holy Roman Emperor

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Rudolph the Second, a figure deeply deeply entwined with the

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set Terrek and the occult.

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Speaker 1: And Rudolph the Second is a really pivotal figure here,

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isn't he? The cover letter mentions him.

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Speaker 2: Yes. That same cover letter voyage found identifies the Emperor

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as a previous owner, likely sometime in the late fifteen

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hundreds to early sixteen hundreds. It's widely believed he probably

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gifted it, maybe his payment to his doctor teppanak Okay.

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Speaker 1: So the emperor owned it, how did he get it?

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There was that theory about John D.

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Speaker 2: Right for a long time. The popular theory was that

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the man who sold the Emperor of the book was

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none other than John D, the famous English mathematician, nostrologer, occultist.

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The story went that he brought it to Prague knowing

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Rudolph's fascination with.

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Speaker 1: The occult makes sense on the surface.

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Speaker 2: It does, but John D was meticulous about his record keeping.

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He kept extensive diaries, and crucially, there is absolutely no

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mention of the Voyage Manuscript anywhere in the parts of

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his diaries we have access to.

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Speaker 1: Ah a lack of evidence.

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Speaker 2: A significant lack, which makes it much more likely that

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someone else entirely sold the Emperor this incredibly unique, unreadable book.

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Speaker 1: And this is where it gets really captivating.

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Speaker 2: With recent research, this is where Stefan Guzi's work comes in.

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Presented in twenty twenty two, He's a dedicated manuscript researcher.

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He described meticulously searching through old archives from the Roman Empire.

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Speaker 1: What was he looking for?

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Speaker 2: The cover letter to Characher mentioned Rudolph the Second bought

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the manuscript for six hundred deucads. Ghuzi search for transactions

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matching that amount.

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Speaker 1: And did he find one.

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Speaker 2: He found only one transaction in the archives, matching precisely

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six hundred gold coins. It was a purchase in fifteen

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ninety nine, not for a single book, but for a

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collection of books, ah collection from who from a man

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named Carl Wiederman. Given the going rate for books back then,

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Guzi concluded Rudolph likely paid the six hundred ducats for

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this whole collection, and the voyage manuscript was just part

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of it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so Carl Weiderman is likely the owner just before

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the Emperor.

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Speaker 2: That's Guzi's strong hypothesis, and his research also brings another

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potential owner into focus, Leonard Rawulf. Who is Rawulf a

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celebrated German botanist, physician, and traveler born in fifteen thirty five.

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Now there are several connections here. Rudolf the second had

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previously bought four hand drawn botanical books by Rawulf a

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few years.

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Speaker 1: Earlier, okay, so a known supplier of botanical books to

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the Emperor exactly.

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Speaker 2: And Carl Wiederman, the seller of the collection, was known

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to be a close friend of Rawulf. Plus, when Raoulf

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died in fifteen ninety six, records show the books he

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owned were sold off three years.

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Speaker 1: Later in fifteen ninety nine, right when Rudolph likely bought

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the collection from.

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Speaker 2: Biederman, precisely While it's still speculative, the alignment of these

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historical threads is incredibly compelling, especially given all the botanical

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illustrations in the manuscript.

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Speaker 1: It really opens up a whole new avenue, doesn't it.

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Did Raoulf acquire it or could he even have authored

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it himself?

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Speaker 2: That's the tantalizing question. Unfortunately, that's where our historical cold

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case currently stands. It just sort of fades out there.

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Speaker 1: It truly is a historical puzzle that just keeps expanding.

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We've traced ownership back centuries, but we still don't definitively

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know if one of these owners wrote it, or if

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that information is just lost to.

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Speaker 2: Time, lost to the mists of time, as they say.

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Speaker 1: But there's one last tantalizing clue about a possible, much

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earlier author if we circle back to that same cover

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letter Wilfrid Voinage found, the one he took so much

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to heart. Yes, it stated that Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph

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the second, and believe the manuscript had been authored by

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a man named Roger Bacon, not Kevin Bacon. Just to

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be clear, though, I do wonder if there's a six

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degrees connection somewhere.

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Speaker 2: Uh probably not, but Roger Bacon the thirteenth century one

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was a genuinely extraordinary figure, an English philosopher, scientist, alchemist,

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a true polymath of his time.

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Speaker 1: So why would Rudolph think he wrote it centuries later?

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Speaker 2: By the sixteen hundreds, when our ownership trail goes cold,

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Bacon's reputation had ballooned far beyond his actual life, almost

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legendary status. People didn't just see him as an old scholar.

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They saw him as kind of wizard with tenure deeply

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connected with alchemy, the occult mister glark Ah.

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Speaker 1: So his reputation preceded him, maybe inaccurately exactly.

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Speaker 2: A potent mix of legend and exaggeration meant Bacon was

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widely believed to possess secret knowledge, even magical abilities. In reality,

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he was an early passionate advocate for the scientific method, observation, experimentation.

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Speaker 1: Quite the opposite of magic pretty much.

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Speaker 2: But to people like Rudolph's the Second, fascinated by these

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cult Roger Bacon was like a renaissance rock star and

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names synonymous with profound hidden wisdom. So it makes total

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sense why someone might attribute such a mysterious manuscript to him,

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even without direct evidence.

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Speaker 1: Especially if Bacon was rumored to know about prolonging.

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Speaker 2: Life precisely, that alleged belief would have been incredibly tempting

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for an emperor. But and this is a crucial point

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we'll definitely come back to. This is just speculation from

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an emperor in the sixteen hundreds about a man who

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died centuries earlier.

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Speaker 1: Right, No contemporary evidence linking Bacon directly, So the original

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scribe still elusive.

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Speaker 2: Still elusive, However, centuries of examination have cemented the manuscript's

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repute and ignatic countless theories about its actual content. Let's

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shift focus now, dive into the book itself. What clues

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can we actually find inside its mysterious pages?

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Speaker 1: Okay, so the physical book itself. What's it actually like?

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Speaker 2: Physically? It's quite unassuming, almost modest really. It's bound in

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this soft, pliable vellum cover. Its dimensions are fairly ordinary

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twenty three point five centimeters high, sixteen point two wide,

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roughly five centimeters thick.

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Speaker 1: So not enormous or tiny, just book sized pretty much.

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Speaker 2: It comprises around two hundred and thirty four pages currently,

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though many scholars believe it originally had more. Several pages

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seem to be missing, maybe torn out over the centuries,

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lost to time, or perhaps even removed deliberately.

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Speaker 1: Interesting and inside is it just a mess of text?

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Speaker 2: No, far from it. We can actually see it's divided

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into six distinct sections, each one visually striking and themed

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around its illustrations, and for lack of a better word,

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the whole visual experience is just well, it's otherworldly, okay.

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Section one, the first and big section, more than half

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the manuscript, is what scholars called the botanical section. It's

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densely packed with drawings of plants. Now, while some elements,

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maybe certain lee shapes, might vaguely resemble known species like

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violets or lilies, maybe, but the overall impression is one

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of biological impossibility. It's like someone took parts from different plants,

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shuffle them like cards, and then stitch them together to

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create entirely new, fantastical organism.

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Speaker 1: Greankenstein plants kind of yeah.

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Speaker 2: The flowers look alien, the lee's curve in these incredibly

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bizarre ways, and some roots look like they were conjured

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purely from imagination, like they were drawn by someone who

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never actually seen a real plant root.

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Speaker 1: So have botanists figured them out matched them to real plants.

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Speaker 2: For over a century, botanists have tried rigorously to match

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these peculiar plants to anything in the real world, with

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remarkably little success. It's been a huge source of frustration.

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Speaker 1: So what are the theories then? If they aren't real plants.

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Speaker 2: Well, several ideas. Some propose they're purely symbolic. Maybe each

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plant represents a concept in some complex mystical or al

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chemical system, not a literal plant.

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Speaker 1: Okay, symbolic what else?

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Speaker 2: Others argue they are real herbs, just highly stylized, maybe

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deliberately distorted, or just badly drawn to hide their true identities,

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like a visual.

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Speaker 1: Code, a code in the pictures themselves exactly.

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Speaker 2: Then there's a particularly intriguing theory from Arthur Tucker and

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Rexford Talbert. They argue the plants strikingly resemble flora from

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sixteenth century Central America, Central America, not Europe, right, specifically

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things like morning glory, tree flowers, prickly pairs. If they're right,

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this radically suggests the manuscript didn't originate in Europe as

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usually assumed. But maybe the New World and the language

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might be an extinct dialect, maybe n waddle or something similar.

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Speaker 1: Wow that would be huge. Is that widely accepted.

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Speaker 2: It's heavily debated. The problem is these illustrations are so unique.

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You can find something somewhere in the world that looks

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a bit like them. So the exact geographical origin still

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very much up in the air.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so botanical section weird, possibly coded, maybe American plants.

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What Section two?

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Speaker 2: The second part is the astronomical section, and this is

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where the imagery really starts to spiral out of this world,

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quite literally. You see numerous circular diagrams, intricate wheels within wheels,

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what look like zodiac symbols, often filling entire pages.

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Speaker 1: So star charts, astrology.

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Speaker 2: The first grants. Yeah, you might assume it's astrological charts, horoscopes,

380
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maybe lunar cycle trackers, and some elements do seem to

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track lunar phases or solar positions. You see these familiar

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twelve part diagrams that align with the zodiac sciens Ares, Taurists, Gemini,

383
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the usual suspects more or less.

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Speaker 1: But again, there's a butt, isn't there.

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Speaker 2: There's always a butt With voyage. The alignment starts to

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unravel the constellations. They don't match any known star charts.

387
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We have, not medieval European, not Arabic, not Chinese. Nothing.

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It's almost as if the author was either inventing their

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own night sky or you know, had knowledge of an

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alternate universe with a totally different celestial layout. It's definitely

391
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not your standard backyard stargazing guide.

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Speaker 1: What are the theories for this section? Then? Bad astronomy?

393
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Speaker 2: That's one idea. Maybe the author was trying to map

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the cosmos but just didn't grasp the math or observational

395
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astronomy needed. Others suggest it might not be about actual

396
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stars at all.

397
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Speaker 1: Symbolic again, could be.

398
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Speaker 2: Purely symbolic, illustrating astrological principles, mystical concepts, maybe part of

399
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:32,200
some esoteric spiritual system where stars represent abstract ideas, not

400
00:20:32,319 --> 00:20:33,319
precise coordinates.

401
00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:35,559
Speaker 1: And the zodiac symbols themselves are weird too.

402
00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:38,799
Speaker 2: They are some are recognizable, but others look distinctly altered

403
00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:42,119
or just off. Like there's a Sagittarius figure, but he's

404
00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:45,640
holding a crossbow, not a traditional bow and arrow artistic

405
00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,039
license huh, or another layer of code.

406
00:20:48,079 --> 00:20:50,160
Speaker 1: Frustratingly close but no cigar.

407
00:20:50,559 --> 00:20:54,759
Speaker 2: Exactly that feeling of something familiar yet fundamentally different. It

408
00:20:54,839 --> 00:20:57,759
drives researchers mad. Theories have tried to link it to

409
00:20:57,839 --> 00:21:02,400
Jewish cabalistic diagrams, early as Islamic star maps, even Indian astronomy,

410
00:21:02,759 --> 00:21:07,559
but nothing fully alliance. It's true astronomical meaning tantalizingly out

411
00:21:07,599 --> 00:21:07,920
of reach.

412
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Speaker 1: Okay, so strange plants, strange stars. What's next the biological section?

413
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Does it get stranger?

414
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,079
Speaker 2: Oh? Somehow it managed to get even stranger. These pages

415
00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:21,359
are filled with dozens of drawings of naked women, sometimes alone,

416
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,279
sometimes in groups. They're often lounging in what look like

417
00:21:24,319 --> 00:21:27,599
tubs or pools connected by these long, winding tubes.

418
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Speaker 1: It's connecting pools of women.

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00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:32,359
Speaker 2: Yeah. Entire pages show them sitting, standing, partly submerged in

420
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these peculiar interconnected vessels. The tubes snake around them like

421
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:39,359
garden hoses, sometimes even sprouting stars or strange roots from

422
00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:42,799
the women's bodies or the vessels. And the anatomy highly stylized,

423
00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:45,960
often very puzzling, certainly not traditional anatomical drawings.

424
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Speaker 1: What on earth could that represent?

425
00:21:47,759 --> 00:21:51,799
Speaker 2: Well? Numerous interpretations, as you can imagine. Some suggest health

426
00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:56,160
or fertility rituals, maybe reflecting ancient ideas. Of bodily humors

427
00:21:56,279 --> 00:21:59,960
or baiting for purification, perhaps even some kind of proto

428
00:22:00,079 --> 00:22:04,880
gynecology or alchemy. Again, others believe it's purely metaphorical, maybe

429
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:08,720
relating to alchemical processes the transformation of body and spirit.

430
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,240
What's really notable is that some of the tubes look

431
00:22:11,319 --> 00:22:15,599
almost mechanical. Researchers have compared them to early water circulation

432
00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:17,359
systems like primitive plumbing.

433
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Speaker 1: Weird, just weird.

434
00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:21,759
Speaker 2: The sheer quantity and unusual depiction make this section one

435
00:22:21,759 --> 00:22:25,720
of the most debated and mysterious. Suggests a deeply symbolic

436
00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:29,200
or a very specialized purpose, not just a literal picture

437
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:30,000
of people bathing.

438
00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:34,079
Speaker 1: Okay, so we've had plants, stars, bathing, women with tubes,

439
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,200
what else cosmological section?

440
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,640
Speaker 2: Next up the cosmological section. This part is brimming with

441
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:43,799
even more circular diagrams and intricate symbols. Some visually echo

442
00:22:43,839 --> 00:22:46,440
the star charts from the astronomical section, like a continuation

443
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of that cosmic theme, but others others look totally different.

444
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They resemble maps of imaginary cities maybe, or perhaps intricate

445
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blueprints of the human body, seen as some kind of

446
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complex cosmic clockwork.

447
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Speaker 1: Wow, and there's a famous foldout in this section.

448
00:23:00,319 --> 00:23:03,119
Speaker 2: Ah. Yes, The real standout here and maybe in the

449
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whole manuscript, is the infamous nine Rosette falldout. It's huge,

450
00:23:07,839 --> 00:23:12,400
a sprawling multi page spread spans six pages when fully unfolded,

451
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featuring nine interconnected circles, each one filled with his dizzying

452
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:20,039
array of stars, miniature castles, intricate patterns.

453
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Speaker 1: What do people think that?

454
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,559
Speaker 2: Is intense debate, tons of theories. Some think it's an

455
00:23:24,599 --> 00:23:28,559
abstract representation of the universe, a highly esoteric cosmic map

456
00:23:28,799 --> 00:23:32,039
showing a unique worldview. Others argue it's a complex al

457
00:23:32,119 --> 00:23:37,079
chemical diagram, illustrating processes of transformation, the interconnectedness of elements

458
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spiritual or material, or maybe spiritual. And then there are

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those who see it as deeply spiritual or mystical, perhaps

460
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a guide to some lost cosmological understanding. It's one of

461
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:48,599
the manuscript's ddys mysteries within a mystery.

462
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:52,079
Speaker 1: Okay, what's next, pharmaceutical More plants, Moving to.

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00:23:52,039 --> 00:23:55,519
Speaker 2: The pharmaceutical section. Yes, we see detailed drawings of various

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00:23:55,519 --> 00:24:00,720
plant parts, roots, and notably many many jars of jars.

465
00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,400
Like apothecary jars, They're meticulously drawn but they don't really

466
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,240
seem to match anything found in no medieval alchemical or

467
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:12,240
apothecary practices, so interpretations vary. Some think they represent specific

468
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,839
medicinal plants or elixers derived from them. Others suggest that

469
00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:19,359
jars are purely symbolic, maybe representing concepts.

470
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 1: Within alchemy, but no labels, no recipes exactly.

471
00:24:22,079 --> 00:24:24,920
Speaker 2: Without any accompanying recipes or text we could read, we're

472
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:28,480
left entirely to speculate on their true purpose, just pictures

473
00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:29,720
of jars and plant.

474
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:32,519
Speaker 1: Bits, and speaking of recipes, the sixth and final section

475
00:24:32,799 --> 00:24:34,359
is called the recipes section.

476
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:37,440
Speaker 2: That's right, though honestly, recipes is a pretty generous term

477
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,680
for what we see. This part has short paragraphs, each

478
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,000
one marked with a little starlike symbol, maybe indicating a

479
00:24:44,039 --> 00:24:45,799
new entry or instruction.

480
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:46,319
Speaker 1: But we can't read them.

481
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,519
Speaker 2: Nope, all in the same undecipherable script, so they could

482
00:24:49,519 --> 00:24:53,400
be anything chemical formulas, potion instructions, maybe the world's most

483
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:54,279
cryptic cooking.

484
00:24:54,039 --> 00:24:57,440
Speaker 1: Guide, huh, lizard stew Yeah, who knows.

485
00:24:57,759 --> 00:24:59,880
Speaker 2: You're left with absolutely no idea what they're meant to

486
00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:02,440
be making, how to make it, or whether it's designed

487
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,640
to cure diseases or yeah, turn you into a lizard.

488
00:25:05,839 --> 00:25:08,640
It's incredibly frustrating for anyone trying to follow along.

489
00:25:09,079 --> 00:25:12,440
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's talk about the script itself, voina cheese

490
00:25:12,599 --> 00:25:15,039
as some call it. It's the core problem, isn't it.

491
00:25:15,039 --> 00:25:18,039
Speaker 2: It's the ultimate enigma. It simply doesn't resemble any known

492
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:21,640
language or cipher in recorded history. It's almost as if

493
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:25,880
someone meticulously set out to create the most confusing, impenetrable

494
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:31,519
system imaginable, and they succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. This

495
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:36,640
sheer incomprehensibility has understandably led to speculation. Could it be

496
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:39,440
the result of a mental health condition like graphomedia, that

497
00:25:39,559 --> 00:25:43,319
uncontrollable urge to write often meaningless stuff, or maybe glossal

498
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:45,680
alia speaking in tongues basically but written down.

499
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:49,279
Speaker 1: Or maybe it's just a fake, an elaborate.

500
00:25:48,799 --> 00:25:52,519
Speaker 2: Hoax, That idea that an ancient prankster or maybe even

501
00:25:52,599 --> 00:25:56,359
Voyage himself fabricated it has been floated repeatedly. There's even

502
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:01,000
some potential evidence debated around this, particularly concerting that signature

503
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,799
of jakub krshiki to tepanek we mentioned.

504
00:26:03,519 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: The doctor's signature. What's the issue.

505
00:26:05,799 --> 00:26:09,599
Speaker 2: While some specialists compare it to other authenticated Tepanek's signatures

506
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:14,359
and argue it's genuine based on characteristics. Another analyst, Jan Burke,

507
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:17,720
strongly contends they don't match at all. He even provides

508
00:26:17,759 --> 00:26:20,319
side by side comparisons that really make you question it.

509
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:21,279
Speaker 1: So what does that imply?

510
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,039
Speaker 2: It leads to the suggestion that maybe Voyage himself added

511
00:26:25,039 --> 00:26:28,640
the signature to boost the manuscript's value, or even that

512
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,799
he entirely fabricated the cover letter to give the book

513
00:26:31,839 --> 00:26:33,920
a more illustrious, mysterious history.

514
00:26:34,319 --> 00:26:36,440
Speaker 1: Could Voyage have faked the whole thing?

515
00:26:37,079 --> 00:26:40,400
Speaker 2: Well, there's compelling evidence suggesting Wilfrid Voyage almost certainly did

516
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:44,279
not create the manuscript himself. Let's consider something called Zip's law.

517
00:26:44,559 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 1: Zipf's law sounds technical.

518
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 2: It's a linguistic principle basically describes the predictable frequency of

519
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,960
words in any natural language. Like in English, the most

520
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:57,559
common word the appears roughly twice as often as the

521
00:26:57,599 --> 00:27:00,960
next most common of three times as often, and and

522
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,000
so on. This pattern holds true across most known.

523
00:27:03,839 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 1: Languages, Okay, and the Voyage Manuscript.

524
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 2: When applied to the Voyage Manuscript, its text surprisingly follows

525
00:27:10,759 --> 00:27:14,960
Zip's law. It behaves structurally like a true language.

526
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:18,039
Speaker 1: Wow, So it's not just random scribbles exactly.

527
00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 2: This is a powerful indicator against random outputs like graphomania

528
00:27:21,759 --> 00:27:27,440
or glossalalia, which typically lack that consistent statistical structure. So

529
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,960
the mystery deepens. It's not random. But does that mean

530
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:31,720
it's not a hoax?

531
00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the critical follow up. Isn't it if it

532
00:27:34,279 --> 00:27:36,519
behaves like a language, could it still be a fake?

533
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,039
Speaker 2: Not necessarily impossible. According to Gordon Rugg, a researcher who's

534
00:27:41,039 --> 00:27:44,000
spent over a decade on this rug, claims it's possible

535
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,359
to fake content that follows Zip's law. He developed a

536
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,920
method using a simple grid of syllables.

537
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,440
Speaker 1: And cards, cards and grids like a game sort of.

538
00:27:52,759 --> 00:27:55,279
Speaker 2: By sliding the card over the grid, it generates combinations

539
00:27:55,319 --> 00:27:59,400
that resemble Voyage words, and crucially, these generated words also

540
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:00,440
follows zip law.

541
00:28:00,599 --> 00:28:02,160
Speaker 1: So proof it's a fake?

542
00:28:02,279 --> 00:28:05,640
Speaker 2: Well, no, not definitive proof. And importantly, Rugg did his

543
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,559
research knowing about Zip's law, which is only really popularized

544
00:28:08,559 --> 00:28:11,039
by George Kingsley Zip in the nineteen thirties and forties,

545
00:28:11,279 --> 00:28:13,960
way after Voyage got the manuscript in nineteen twelve.

546
00:28:14,039 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: Ah, So a fifteenth century hoaxer wouldn't have known about

547
00:28:17,599 --> 00:28:19,960
Zip's law to fake it that way exactly.

548
00:28:20,559 --> 00:28:23,839
Speaker 2: Rugg's method shows how a sophisticated hoax could be created now,

549
00:28:24,079 --> 00:28:27,119
but it doesn't prove one was created centuries ago using

550
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:27,839
that knowledge.

551
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 1: Okay, so Rock shows it's possible to fake, but not

552
00:28:31,559 --> 00:28:34,759
that it was faked. What do other scholars think? Still

553
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:36,279
leaning towards hoax.

554
00:28:36,519 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 2: Many others remain unconvinced it's a hoax at all. Doctor

555
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,720
Marcela Montemero and doctor Damien Zinnett, both experts in physics

556
00:28:43,759 --> 00:28:47,000
and math, did an even deeper dive using information theory

557
00:28:47,519 --> 00:28:50,000
goes beyond just word frequency and what do They find

558
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,960
fascinating consistent patterns in each of the six sections. They

559
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:57,480
found common words associated only with those specific sections, not

560
00:28:57,559 --> 00:29:01,480
appearing elsewhere. They also found many words with similar spelling structures,

561
00:29:01,519 --> 00:29:03,440
like how English words end in somepology.

562
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: Consistency suggests meaning.

563
00:29:05,799 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 2: That's monta Meuri's conclusion. She said that kind of consistency

564
00:29:09,519 --> 00:29:12,799
suggests intent, like there is a meaning hidden somewhere deep

565
00:29:12,799 --> 00:29:15,759
inside the mess. She added, if it's a hoax, it's

566
00:29:15,759 --> 00:29:21,599
a masterclass in deception, layered, deliberate, and statistically convincing, which raises.

567
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 1: The question, how could a medieval prankster pull off such

568
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,799
statistical sophistication without modern tools or math.

569
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,279
Speaker 2: It seems highly improbable Voinage himself in the early nineteen

570
00:29:32,319 --> 00:29:36,960
hundreds unlikely, the medieval author even less likely. Regardless, one

571
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,880
of the biggest game changers came through radiocarbon dating.

572
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 1: Ah the dating this was definitive, pretty definitive.

573
00:29:43,319 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 2: Four small parchment samples were analyzed. The results conclusively showed

574
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:49,359
the book is much much older than any of its

575
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:52,720
confirmed owners. How old the parchment dates from sometime between

576
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:55,880
fourteen oh four and fourteen thirty eight. There's some debate,

577
00:29:56,279 --> 00:29:58,559
maybe a slightly wider range like thirteen ninety one to

578
00:29:58,559 --> 00:30:01,160
fourteen eighty three, but basically early fifteenth century.

579
00:30:01,279 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 1: So when Emperor Rudolph got it in the sixteen hundreds,

580
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:04,160
he was.

581
00:30:04,119 --> 00:30:06,519
Speaker 2: Already one hundred to two hundred years old, a venerable

582
00:30:06,599 --> 00:30:07,480
artifact even then.

583
00:30:07,559 --> 00:30:10,119
Speaker 1: And this dating completely rules out Roger Bacon.

584
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:13,599
Speaker 2: Absolutely, unequivocally. Bacon lived from twelve nineteen to twelve ninety two,

585
00:30:13,759 --> 00:30:15,759
at least a century too early for when the partial

586
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:19,119
was made. So this dating reveals a crucial truth. Either

587
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:23,440
someone with an exceptional understanding of linguistics. Rivaling modern experts

588
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:26,519
created this as an elaborate hoax in the fourteen hundreds.

589
00:30:27,079 --> 00:30:31,160
Or it's a genuine yet still undeciphered historical.

590
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:33,759
Speaker 1: Document, and if it's real, the quest to solve it continues.

591
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,559
Many have tried, right, even the early owners.

592
00:30:36,359 --> 00:30:40,599
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yeah, voinich burresh tepanek, They all sought help.

593
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:45,319
Over time, numerous theories emerged, secret societies, references to the

594
00:30:45,319 --> 00:30:47,359
Andromeda Galaxy centuries before.

595
00:30:47,119 --> 00:30:49,799
Speaker 1: Telescopes, wild stuff debunks, though.

596
00:30:49,559 --> 00:30:53,119
Speaker 2: Mostly debunked by rigorous scholarship. But some theories have shown

597
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:54,200
more potential.

598
00:30:53,799 --> 00:30:56,279
Speaker 1: More resilience, like the idea it might be old Turkish.

599
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,359
Speaker 2: That's one, not modern Turkish, but a much older form

600
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:03,920
from the broader Turkic language family. In twenty eighteen, Amatt Ardisch,

601
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,519
a Turkish electrical engineer and language enthusiast, proposed this with

602
00:31:07,599 --> 00:31:08,640
his sons.

603
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:10,519
Speaker 1: Not linguists, but language enthusiasts.

604
00:31:10,559 --> 00:31:13,319
Speaker 2: Right, they noticed the statistical structure seem to align with

605
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:15,480
patterns in agglutinative.

606
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: Languages, a glutinative like lego bricks exactly.

607
00:31:19,279 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 2: Unlike English with prepositions in word order languages like Turkish,

608
00:31:23,359 --> 00:31:27,119
build complex words by stacking small pieces of meaning together.

609
00:31:27,799 --> 00:31:31,759
Ev is house, Evler's houses, Evler day is in the houses.

610
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:36,000
The Voynish words often show a similar layered construction.

611
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 1: So Ardich thinks it's phonetic Turkish.

612
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:41,920
Speaker 2: See and his sons believe it's written phonetically a sound

613
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:46,039
based version of this ancient Turkish, maybe using an invented script.

614
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,480
He's even suggested it could be a diary travels people, places,

615
00:31:49,519 --> 00:31:50,440
medical knowledge.

616
00:31:50,519 --> 00:31:51,759
Speaker 1: Has he translated much?

617
00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,160
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, they claim to have translated about thirty

618
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:57,279
percent and published a translation of one whole page thirty

619
00:31:57,279 --> 00:32:00,200
three V. They say they've decoded over six hundred words,

620
00:32:00,359 --> 00:32:03,680
still sharing updates online and in Turkish academic.

621
00:32:03,279 --> 00:32:05,599
Speaker 1: Circles, but not widely accepted yet not.

622
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,559
Speaker 2: Really by mainstream scholars. A big challenge is the lack

623
00:32:08,599 --> 00:32:12,400
of a repeatable methodology. Other linguists can't easily verify their

624
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:17,119
findings independently. It seems to rely heavily on subjective interpretation.

625
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 1: But somewhat important. Does See promise in it?

626
00:32:18,839 --> 00:32:21,839
Speaker 2: Yes, Lisa Fagan Davis, and she brings her own potentially

627
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:22,720
game changing theory.

628
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,599
Speaker 1: Ah, Lisa Fagan Davis, you mentioned her expertise, what's her

629
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:26,440
big discovery?

630
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,400
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, she published a groundbreaking article arguing the

631
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,200
manuscript wasn't written by one person, but by.

632
00:32:33,039 --> 00:32:35,680
Speaker 1: Five, five different authors. How did she figure that out?

633
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 2: Doctor Davis has a PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale,

634
00:32:39,119 --> 00:32:43,000
taught Latin paleography there now at Simmons, Executive Director of

635
00:32:43,039 --> 00:32:47,400
the Medieval Academy of America, basically a top expert. She

636
00:32:47,519 --> 00:32:52,039
used a digital paleoghy tool designed to spot handwriting characteristics.

637
00:32:51,359 --> 00:32:53,440
Speaker 1: And it found five distinct.

638
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 2: Styles, five distinct handwriting styles throughout the manuscript. And what's more,

639
00:32:57,319 --> 00:33:00,640
they didn't just do sections each sometimes they switch scribes midpage,

640
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:02,839
even several times on the same page or foldout.

641
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:03,839
Speaker 1: Has that been confirmed?

642
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 2: Yes, Her finding has been reviewed and confirmed by at

643
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,799
least two other independent papers since twenty twenty one. It

644
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:13,920
significantly elevates the likelihood. This fundamentally changes how we see

645
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:15,200
the manuscript from.

646
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:19,440
Speaker 1: One person's obsession or prank to a community project.

647
00:33:19,599 --> 00:33:22,559
Speaker 2: Exactly. It implies some sort of community, maybe a scriptorium

648
00:33:22,599 --> 00:33:25,240
amongst a group of scholars. Put this book together opens

649
00:33:25,279 --> 00:33:26,799
up entirely new lines of inquiry.

650
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:31,519
Speaker 1: So if it was a community. Maybe Hebrew speaking Jewish

651
00:33:31,559 --> 00:33:33,920
community trying to keep knowledge secret.

652
00:33:34,119 --> 00:33:37,599
Speaker 2: That's another theory proposed in twenty twenty by Rainier Hannick,

653
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,200
a German linguist. He suggested it might be Hebrew, but

654
00:33:41,319 --> 00:33:43,279
disguised in an invented alphabet.

655
00:33:43,359 --> 00:33:44,519
Speaker 1: How did he argue that.

656
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,759
Speaker 2: By analyzing word structures he found patterns matching Semitic languages,

657
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,880
especially Hebrew. He ruled out Latin, Arabic Aramaic based on

658
00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:56,839
missing grammar markers or structures. Using Hebrew grammar and dictionaries.

659
00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,160
He even translated phrases like the farmer groaned over.

660
00:34:00,079 --> 00:34:02,839
Speaker 1: The Times, suggesting it's real text, just hidden.

661
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:06,519
Speaker 2: Right, Maybe ancient Hebrew, perhaps a local dialect deliberately written

662
00:34:06,519 --> 00:34:10,719
in a secret script for privacy or to protect sacred knowledge. Unfortunately,

663
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,079
Hannig passed away in twenty twenty two, and no one

664
00:34:13,119 --> 00:34:14,840
has really taken up his specific.

665
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 1: Work to verify it, and like other theories, there's debate.

666
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:21,159
Speaker 2: Always. Critics point out his method, like others, assumes a

667
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:24,480
direct letter for letter link, and not everything he decoded

668
00:34:24,519 --> 00:34:28,960
made consistent sense. Some translations were well odd, like I

669
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:32,440
am a bull ready, which facilitates and renews house and ruins.

670
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:35,360
You are a piece of lamb which opens the mouth

671
00:34:35,639 --> 00:34:37,079
and is discouraged when I and.

672
00:34:37,079 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 1: I, Yeah, that sounds a bit nonsensical.

673
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,719
Speaker 2: It often leads these promising starts into that forest of

674
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,400
theories that look brilliant initially but don't hold up across

675
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:48,000
the whole text. But Hannig wasn't the first to suggest

676
00:34:48,079 --> 00:34:50,079
it's a code. That's one of the oldest ideas.

677
00:34:50,159 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 1: Nakho could explain the weird pictures to another layer of secrecy.

678
00:34:54,159 --> 00:34:57,039
Speaker 2: Possibly a way to mislead or protect the true meaning.

679
00:34:57,679 --> 00:35:00,000
The most formidable attempt to crack it as a code

680
00:35:00,079 --> 00:35:01,239
came from William F. Friedman.

681
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:05,760
Speaker 1: Friedman the World War II codebreaker Guy pre Nsa the.

682
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:09,599
Speaker 2: Very same a true legend in cryptography. In the nineteen forties,

683
00:35:09,599 --> 00:35:13,000
while leading the US Army Signals Intelligence Service, he assembled

684
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:19,559
this elite team linguists, paleographers, egyptologists, mathematicians, scientists, real heavy hitters.

685
00:35:19,599 --> 00:35:20,159
Speaker 1: What did they do?

686
00:35:20,519 --> 00:35:24,599
Speaker 2: After hours? They formed the first Voytage Study Group. Their

687
00:35:24,599 --> 00:35:29,000
ambitious goal transcribed the whole manuscript onto IBM punch cards

688
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,920
for computer analysis, one of the earliest attempts to apply

689
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:33,039
modern crypto to it.

690
00:35:33,039 --> 00:35:33,679
Speaker 1: Did it work?

691
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,239
Speaker 2: They managed to punch at least forty eight thousand characters,

692
00:35:36,599 --> 00:35:41,000
incredibly tedious work done strictly after hours. The group eventually

693
00:35:41,039 --> 00:35:43,360
disbanded without conclusive results.

694
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 1: But he tried again later.

695
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,800
Speaker 2: He did in nineteen sixty two a second voytage study group,

696
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:52,679
this time with more advanced RCA computers. Again after hours,

697
00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:56,599
months of intense focus, grafts, charts, records. They even had

698
00:35:56,880 --> 00:36:00,320
the wives women who transcribed and key punched.

699
00:36:00,079 --> 00:36:01,000
Speaker 1: What happened that time?

700
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:04,719
Speaker 2: RCA eventually banned using their computers for extracurricular stuff, so

701
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,119
the group shut down prematurely. Friedman himself came to believe

702
00:36:08,119 --> 00:36:10,679
it wasn't a simple cipher needing a key, but something

703
00:36:10,679 --> 00:36:15,280
more complex, a deliberately invented language functioning as a sophisticated code.

704
00:36:15,519 --> 00:36:17,639
Speaker 1: So even he admitted defeat.

705
00:36:17,639 --> 00:36:20,760
Speaker 2: He ultimately concluded that breaking it might be possible, but

706
00:36:21,159 --> 00:36:24,039
extremely difficult. You can only imagine what he might have

707
00:36:24,039 --> 00:36:25,920
done with today's tech like AI.

708
00:36:26,159 --> 00:36:28,039
Speaker 1: Has AI been used recently, oh.

709
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:31,239
Speaker 2: Yes, several times, mainly trying to spot subtle patterns or

710
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:35,360
compare tech structures to real languages. Some early AI projects

711
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:39,360
spark brief hopes finding names or repeating structures a twenty

712
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:43,239
twenty five attempt focused on symbol rules, not conventional writing

713
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:47,719
any breakthroughs. To date, no AI method has definitively solved it.

714
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:52,519
They've mostly added more intriguing but unproven theories. Most notably,

715
00:36:52,559 --> 00:36:56,480
in twenty eighteen, University of Alberta researchers led by Greg

716
00:36:56,559 --> 00:36:59,960
Condra used an AI trained on three hundred and eighty languages.

717
00:37:00,079 --> 00:37:00,880
Speaker 1: What was their angle?

718
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,400
Speaker 2: They hypothesized it that might be anagrams, scrambled layers in

719
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:08,320
each word, which makes decoding way harder. The AI tried unscrambling,

720
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:12,280
matching to Hebrew roots. The first translated sentence was provocative.

721
00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,159
She made recommendations to the priest man in the house,

722
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:16,079
and me and people.

723
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:18,920
Speaker 1: Sounds meaningful, but was it reliable?

724
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:23,480
Speaker 2: Critics weren't sold. They said it required interpretive gymnastics, reordering letters,

725
00:37:23,519 --> 00:37:27,239
guessing vowels, making big assumptions about medieval Hebrew. Basically, the

726
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:30,519
AI might have just gotten lucky. The Verge critiqued it sharply,

727
00:37:30,559 --> 00:37:33,400
saying the method was too subjective. Any sentence could be

728
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:34,679
twisted into meaning something.

729
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:37,440
Speaker 1: But the AI wasn't totally useless, not entirely.

730
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 2: It helps solidify the theory that the word structure does

731
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:46,760
show patterns typical of real languages, syllable repetition, prefixes, suffixes.

732
00:37:47,079 --> 00:37:50,440
A promising first attempt maybe, but clearly much more work

733
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,719
is needed if AI is going to crack this historical mystery.

734
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,039
Speaker 1: Okay, so we haven't cracked the words yet, but what

735
00:37:56,119 --> 00:37:58,719
about the purpose of the book. We have promising theories,

736
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:01,360
but also some less promising ones.

737
00:38:01,559 --> 00:38:04,639
Speaker 2: As with any profound, lingering mystery, you're always going to

738
00:38:04,679 --> 00:38:08,920
get a degree of wild speculation, and the Voynish manuscript

739
00:38:09,639 --> 00:38:10,920
definitely no exception there.

740
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,519
Speaker 1: It's true, it's almost impossible to resist the really far

741
00:38:13,559 --> 00:38:16,719
fetched theories, isn't it. The sheer oddity of the illustrations

742
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:19,599
just begs the question, what if this isn't from our

743
00:38:19,639 --> 00:38:21,320
world or even our reality?

744
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:22,280
Speaker 2: Ba alien theories?

745
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,119
Speaker 1: Could it be like a message from another dimension, maybe

746
00:38:25,119 --> 00:38:27,679
old English from an alternate Earth, which explains why the

747
00:38:27,679 --> 00:38:30,320
plants look close but not quite right, Or maybe from

748
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:34,239
another planet entirely alien language, alien plants. Those women in

749
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:37,239
the tubs could be some strange alien species and vats.

750
00:38:37,639 --> 00:38:40,320
Speaker 2: It would certainly explain the weird tubes and the star

751
00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:44,280
charts not matching ours. Maybe directions to a space seven

752
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:44,760
to eleven.

753
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 1: Huh, directions to the cosmic slurpee machine. Do scholars take

754
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,000
any of this seriously?

755
00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:54,280
Speaker 2: Not really. They tend to see them as entertaining thought experiments,

756
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:58,119
not serious hypotheses. When a BBC journalist visited Yale, the

757
00:38:58,199 --> 00:39:01,480
curator joked, my favorite is that it is the illustrated

758
00:39:01,519 --> 00:39:04,159
diary of a teenage space alien who left it behind

759
00:39:04,199 --> 00:39:04,639
on Earth.

760
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:07,159
Speaker 1: Funny, but no actual evidence.

761
00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 2: Obviously, absolutely zero scientific or historical evidence for any extraterrestrial

762
00:39:12,559 --> 00:39:16,679
or interdimensional claims. However, there is a much more grounded

763
00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:20,400
and highly compelling explanation for why the illustrations, especially the

764
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,159
botanical ones, look so alien.

765
00:39:22,199 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: Okay, what's the grounded explanation?

766
00:39:24,199 --> 00:39:27,320
Speaker 2: Many researchers and I believe these aren't just strange unknown plants.

767
00:39:27,679 --> 00:39:31,199
They are profoundly symbolic part of a much older, richer tradition,

768
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:33,480
the alchemical herbal manuscript.

769
00:39:33,519 --> 00:39:36,320
Speaker 1: Alchemical herbal so not just about plants exactly.

770
00:39:36,639 --> 00:39:39,320
Speaker 2: In these texts, plants weren't drawn just for how they looked,

771
00:39:39,599 --> 00:39:42,800
but for what they represented or meant within a complex

772
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:46,719
system of spiritual and chemical transformation. They weren't field guides,

773
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:50,760
they were mystical recipe books full of metaphor coded ingredients,

774
00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:56,079
planetary alignments, instructions for transformation, spiritual or material. Alchemy was

775
00:39:56,119 --> 00:39:58,000
way more than just turning lead into gold.

776
00:39:58,199 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 1: That distinction literal versus symbolics seems crucial, and there's evidence

777
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:04,480
linking Voyage to this genre.

778
00:40:04,639 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 2: Yes, Voyage channalyist Dian O'Donovan argues the manuscript's botanical sections

779
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:13,119
share sort of genetic material with that genre. She points

780
00:40:13,119 --> 00:40:17,519
to compelling similarities with known alchemical erbels, especially Lombard copies

781
00:40:17,519 --> 00:40:19,159
of the trectatist.

782
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,679
Speaker 1: Arabis Lombard copies from Italy exactly.

783
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:24,719
Speaker 2: The resemblance is so striking some scholars propose the Voyage

784
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,480
was produced in the same scriptorium the writing room in

785
00:40:27,519 --> 00:40:31,800
monasteries in northern Italy Lombardi region, sometimes in the fourteen thirties.

786
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:33,679
Speaker 1: Which fits the carbon dating perfectly.

787
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:38,159
Speaker 2: Perfectly, adds substantial weight. Plus the number of plant illustrations

788
00:40:38,199 --> 00:40:40,920
around ninety eight full page images falls right in the

789
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:43,559
typical range of ninety to one hundred images found in

790
00:40:43,639 --> 00:40:47,559
late medieval alchemical erbls like the Tractatus, reinforcing the connection.

791
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:50,719
Speaker 1: So the pictures look like other alchemical books from the

792
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:52,400
right time and place precisely.

793
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:55,480
Speaker 2: And when you put Voinage images next to illustrations from

794
00:40:55,599 --> 00:41:00,400
real fifteenth century European alchemical erbls, often made by physician alcamists,

795
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:05,559
you see similarities. Those texts often had diagrams for distilling essences,

796
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:09,400
instructions for ritual baths, weird hybrid plants linked to elements

797
00:41:09,599 --> 00:41:10,639
or zodiac signs.

798
00:41:10,679 --> 00:41:13,119
Speaker 1: Okay, so it fits the visual style. What about the

799
00:41:13,119 --> 00:41:15,239
weirdness itself the symbolism.

800
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:19,000
Speaker 2: O'Donovan argues the voyage might have been a sophisticated mnemonic system,

801
00:41:19,599 --> 00:41:22,639
like flash cards for people already trained in highly specialized

802
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:26,760
esoteric knowledge. The plants weren't meant to be literal botanical specimens.

803
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:28,639
Speaker 1: They were visual triggers exactly to.

804
00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:32,239
Speaker 2: Jog memory or unlocked complex knowledge passed on orally, never

805
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:35,320
meant for the average reader. Think about how other manuscripts

806
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:39,119
show snakewort with roots drawn like a snake, symbolic not literal.

807
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:43,199
Researchers J. K. Peterson and Edith Sherwood suggest similar things

808
00:41:43,199 --> 00:41:46,320
in Voyage. Roots that look like a winged angel or

809
00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:50,119
a cat's body might point to a plant whose folk name,

810
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:54,280
myth or alchemical treatment was symbolically linked to that creature

811
00:41:54,519 --> 00:41:55,679
in the original language.

812
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:58,920
Speaker 1: So for a trained altemist, the weird roots weren't nonsense.

813
00:41:59,039 --> 00:42:03,559
Speaker 2: They could have been shorthand precise instructions when to fire

814
00:42:03,639 --> 00:42:07,280
up the still, which moon phase, which planetary metal the

815
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,239
plant was tied to, makes sense to the initiated, it's

816
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:10,840
bizarre to.

817
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:13,880
Speaker 1: Us, and other historians support the Italian herbal idea too.

818
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:18,320
Speaker 2: Yes. Alan Teto, well known historian, compares Voyage meticulously to

819
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:21,880
other fourteenth and fifteenth century illustrations, again fitting the dating.

820
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,159
These comparisons are often with erbels, which are basically alchemical

821
00:42:25,199 --> 00:42:28,239
rbals stripped at the sorcery just focused on medicinal.

822
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:30,360
Speaker 1: Plants, and he found strong visual matches.

823
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:34,000
Speaker 2: Striking comparisons where plants look remarkably similar, if not identical,

824
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:37,000
the style is a strong match. Tod also argues the

825
00:42:37,039 --> 00:42:40,480
other sections fit a comprehensive herbal The bathing pages he

826
00:42:40,559 --> 00:42:43,960
sees them as clear references to traditional thermal baths known

827
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:47,480
from medicinal properties, and the recipes section he thinks it

828
00:42:47,519 --> 00:42:50,320
isn't recipes at all, but functions more like an index,

829
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,199
a common feature at the end of big medieval texts.

830
00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:56,719
Speaker 1: What about linguist Stephen bachs Rbal theory too.

831
00:42:57,119 --> 00:43:00,920
Speaker 2: Bax also leans into the erbal theory tenty fourteen paper,

832
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:04,360
he detailed how erbals were often copied and with each copy,

833
00:43:04,559 --> 00:43:07,800
illustrations got less recognizable, drifting from the source.

834
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:10,400
Speaker 1: Explain some distortions exactly.

835
00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 2: He also noted that in many urbls, the plant name

836
00:43:13,039 --> 00:43:15,280
is usually the very first word of the first paragraph

837
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:19,440
on the page with the illustration. Using this and comparing images,

838
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:24,760
he tentatively identified drawings he believes are Juniper, hellebor, and century,

839
00:43:25,039 --> 00:43:27,039
linking them to specific voyage words.

840
00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 1: His conclusion on origin.

841
00:43:29,119 --> 00:43:32,599
Speaker 2: He ultimately concluded it was likely not European, maybe from

842
00:43:32,639 --> 00:43:34,360
a culture and language now extinct.

843
00:43:34,519 --> 00:43:38,039
Speaker 1: Okay, so the alchemical medicinal erbal theory seems really strong.

844
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:40,920
What about that women's health angle someone proposed?

845
00:43:41,079 --> 00:43:45,039
Speaker 2: Ah? Yes, adding another fascinating layer. Back in the nineteen forties,

846
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:49,800
Leonel Strong, a cancer research scientist and amateur cryptographer, announced

847
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:50,880
he decoded part of it.

848
00:43:51,079 --> 00:43:52,159
Speaker 1: What did he claim it was?

849
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:56,559
Speaker 2: He claimed the text was medieval English, focused on the

850
00:43:56,599 --> 00:44:01,800
effects of plants on physiological processes, especially the diseases of women.

851
00:44:02,519 --> 00:44:06,679
He supposedly decoded two specific pages folio seventy eight and

852
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:10,000
ninety three any examples. A compelling snippet polished at the

853
00:44:10,039 --> 00:44:13,159
time described childbirth when the contents of the womb ripprepare

854
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:16,159
the membranes, the child comes slightly from the mother, issuing

855
00:44:16,159 --> 00:44:18,880
with the legs stance skewed and bent, while the arms

856
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:20,920
bend at the elbow are knotted above the head like

857
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:22,199
the legs of a crawfish.

858
00:44:22,239 --> 00:44:25,639
Speaker 1: Wow. That sounds specific, and it would explain bathing Women's

859
00:44:25,639 --> 00:44:26,119
section two.

860
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:29,360
Speaker 2: It certainly would provide a logical explanation for that section. However,

861
00:44:30,159 --> 00:44:33,519
Strong's theory quickly started to unravel why what went wrong,

862
00:44:33,639 --> 00:44:36,800
largely because he never properly explained his method. His main

863
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:40,199
excuse was present war conditions World War II is happening,

864
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:44,280
plausible for general secrecy, but he hinted sharing his method

865
00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:47,639
might be uniquely risky. He also never got full access

866
00:44:47,679 --> 00:44:50,440
to the original manuscript to continue decoding.

867
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:52,159
Speaker 1: And after he died his notes.

868
00:44:52,159 --> 00:44:55,960
Speaker 2: His personal notes were revealed. Scholars analyzing them found that

869
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:59,880
when words didn't fit his English interpretations, Strong had exc

870
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:03,880
explicitly erased characters in his notes clear erase marks to

871
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:05,639
force the words to sound English.

872
00:45:05,719 --> 00:45:07,360
Speaker 1: Oh, cooking the books.

873
00:45:07,079 --> 00:45:09,320
Speaker 2: Pretty much, and when the key he claimed to use

874
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:13,519
was tested rigorously on other sections, it just produced.

875
00:45:13,119 --> 00:45:17,679
Speaker 1: Gibberish, so that theory died, but someone revived it recently.

876
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:22,400
Speaker 2: Fast forward to twenty seventeen, Nicholas Gibbs, a historical researcher

877
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:27,000
and TV scriptwriter, claimed he'd finally cracked it. Another grand declaration.

878
00:45:27,119 --> 00:45:29,400
Speaker 1: What was his idea still women's health.

879
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:32,920
Speaker 2: Similar theme, but his mechanism was different. Gibbs argued it

880
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:35,039
wasn't encrypted at all, just written in a form of

881
00:45:35,039 --> 00:45:39,280
shorthand Latin, like medieval doctor's scribbled notes lazy Latin. He

882
00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:41,480
called it basically a medical doctor's.

883
00:45:41,079 --> 00:45:44,760
Speaker 1: Notebook lazy Latin, modern doctor's handwriting exactly.

884
00:45:45,079 --> 00:45:47,719
Speaker 2: Perhaps not much has changed there. He published, his research,

885
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:50,960
got huge traction, ran in the prestigious Times literary supplement,

886
00:45:51,159 --> 00:45:53,599
tons of press. For a moment, it seemed the mystery

887
00:45:53,679 --> 00:45:54,320
might be solved.

888
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:56,800
Speaker 1: But then the experts weighed in.

889
00:45:57,119 --> 00:46:00,679
Speaker 2: Then the genuine experts weighed in, and the excitement filledzzl fast.

890
00:46:01,159 --> 00:46:03,920
Gibbs had only managed to translate two lines, and even

891
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:05,599
those weren't grammatically proper Latin.

892
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:07,159
Speaker 1: Just two lines, just two.

893
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:11,440
Speaker 2: As journalist Annelie Knewitz observed, his analysis was a mix

894
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:14,719
of stuff we already knew and stuff he couldn't possibly prove.

895
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:19,480
Scholars universally pointed out, no consistent grammar, no confirmed matches

896
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:23,119
to non medieval shorthand it was like solving a crossword

897
00:46:23,159 --> 00:46:25,840
by cherry picking clues fitting a preconceived answer.

898
00:46:26,119 --> 00:46:26,960
Speaker 1: Wishful thinking.

899
00:46:27,079 --> 00:46:30,440
Speaker 2: Basically, as Knuts put it, while Gibbs saw patterns, the

900
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:34,559
rest of the scholarly world saw wishful thinking, and that, unfortunately,

901
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:38,440
is the fate of many voyage theories. While we've covered

902
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:41,199
many intriguing ideas today, this is really just the tip

903
00:46:41,199 --> 00:46:41,800
of the iceberg.

904
00:46:42,039 --> 00:46:43,960
Speaker 1: So many more theories out there.

905
00:46:43,719 --> 00:46:47,000
Speaker 2: Dozens, maybe hundreds, some more credible than others. A quick

906
00:46:47,039 --> 00:46:50,280
search on vootage forms reveals an ocean of amateur cyptologists

907
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:53,880
claiming they finally solves it. It's understandable, though, everyone loves

908
00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:56,360
a puzzle and this is the ultimate enigma hashtag tag

909
00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:56,920
tag outro.

910
00:46:57,199 --> 00:47:00,920
Speaker 1: So, after this really deep dive into century of mystery,

911
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:05,360
endless theories, what can we actually say we know about

912
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:09,360
the Voyage manuscript? While the ultimate solution, that kind of

913
00:47:09,519 --> 00:47:13,760
risetta stone for the text still seems just beyond reach.

914
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:15,639
Speaker 2: We are certain about a few key things.

915
00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:18,079
Speaker 1: Right we are We know with a high degree of

916
00:47:18,119 --> 00:47:21,320
confidence that its script behaves like a real language, or

917
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:25,519
at least follows incredibly sophisticated linguistic rules. That's thanks to

918
00:47:25,599 --> 00:47:28,519
rigorous statistical analysis like Zip's law.

919
00:47:28,679 --> 00:47:30,280
Speaker 2: Okay, so it has structure. What else?

920
00:47:30,679 --> 00:47:32,760
Speaker 1: We also know it wasn't written by just one person,

921
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:37,079
but by five distinct scribes. That discovery strongly suggests a

922
00:47:37,079 --> 00:47:41,239
collaborative effort, maybe a community, a scriptorium of monks or scholars,

923
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:45,280
and the dating radiocarbon dating firmly places its creation in

924
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:48,480
the early fifteenth century, specifically between fourteen oh four and

925
00:47:48,519 --> 00:47:49,519
fourteen thirty eight.

926
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:52,039
Speaker 2: Which links it to the herbal illustrations exactly.

927
00:47:52,119 --> 00:47:55,719
Speaker 1: The botanical illustrations over half the book align remarkably well

928
00:47:55,719 --> 00:47:58,519
with erbals from that precise era, strongly hinting at an

929
00:47:58,559 --> 00:48:00,400
alchemical or medicinal purpose.

930
00:48:00,679 --> 00:48:02,840
Speaker 2: So just as important as what it is is what

931
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,119
it is not. Precisely, It's not a hoax fabricated by

932
00:48:06,199 --> 00:48:09,199
Voyanage himself. It wasn't written by Roger Bacon or any

933
00:48:09,199 --> 00:48:12,440
of the other confirmed owners we traced, and sorry, sci

934
00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:15,360
fi fans, it was definitely not a teenage alien's diary

935
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:16,360
left behind on Earth.

936
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:21,199
Speaker 1: Okay, So from these certainties, the speculation just branches out

937
00:48:21,239 --> 00:48:22,079
wildly again.

938
00:48:22,519 --> 00:48:26,760
Speaker 2: It continues to pull us in fascinating, often contradictory directions.

939
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,920
Is it an ancient form of Turkish, a clever Hebrew code,

940
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:34,880
another extinct language altogether? Was it made in northern Italy,

941
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:37,320
maybe in a secret script known only to a few?

942
00:48:37,639 --> 00:48:41,239
Is it a true complex code or a painstakingly invented

943
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:42,840
language design never to be read.

944
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:46,599
Speaker 1: We just don't have that elegant, universally accepted solution yet exactly.

945
00:48:46,679 --> 00:48:49,960
Speaker 2: Until that emerges, we may never truly know its ultimate purpose.

946
00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:53,079
Perhaps the full truth will remain forever beyond our grasp.

947
00:48:53,599 --> 00:48:56,360
And while yeah, one might see that as frustrating, I

948
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:57,960
think there's maybe a different way to look at it.

949
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:00,599
Speaker 1: Absolutely, instead of frustration, I think you can find real

950
00:49:00,679 --> 00:49:04,199
joy in the mystery itself and in the sheer, boundless

951
00:49:04,199 --> 00:49:08,280
creativity of the theories it sparks. Sometimes they're whimsical, even silly,

952
00:49:08,679 --> 00:49:12,119
other times deeply thought provoking, pushing our understanding.

953
00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:12,679
Speaker 2: But always engaging.

954
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:17,559
Speaker 1: They always, without fail utterly engaging. So, even though humanity

955
00:49:17,599 --> 00:49:21,239
hasn't solved the voynish manuscript yet and maybe never will.

956
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:24,239
It remains one of the most compelling and just plain

957
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:28,800
fun mysteries to explore it really is, and maybe, just maybe,

958
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:32,800
somewhere across the centuries, a fifteenth century monk is having

959
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:36,320
a quiet laugh, knowing they successfully fooled the entire world

960
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:39,880
for over half a millennium with an utterly unsolvable joke,

961
00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:43,880
which leaves us with a provocative question for you, our listener.

962
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:46,280
Speaker 2: What other hidden secrets might be waiting out there, hiding

963
00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:48,760
in plain sight, patiently waiting for the right mind, the

964
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:51,519
right approach to come along and finally unravel them.

965
00:49:51,559 --> 00:49:54,039
Speaker 1: Something for you, tomull over, or perhaps explore on your

966
00:49:54,079 --> 00:49:54,280
own