The University of Yale stored in a vault one of the greatest enigmas of human knowledge. The Voynich Manuscript
This is an anonymous medieval book that since its rediscovery in 1912 has baffled linguists and cryptographers worldwide . In fact, it has created its own category of scholars and fans, called voynicologistas.
Written in the fifteenth century in a language or code that no one could decipher and accompanied with illustrations of rare or nonexistent plants, astrological symbols , creatures with forms of jellyfish and naked women, Voynich Manuscript book as fragile as required .
“harassment” and “torture” are the words used by the Juan José García Gil editor to describe the BBC the situation of Yale University, who has had to establish a restricted access to the codex.
Gil García to understand why scholars Voynich Manuscript was not enough access full online book on high quality and free. As director of the Spanish publishing Siloam almost 20 years he dedicated to the business of reproducing rare old books and knows what generates a realistic copy in the hands ago.
After years of contact, the small independent publisher got the precious rights of the mysterious codex after putting on the table Yale University two historical books and their respective replicas.
But that’s just the beginning.
Among industrial and craft
the 898 copies of the Voynich Manuscript, which Siloam launch sale to a approximate price of US $ 8,000 each , take total a year and half of creation, term which they hope to launch sales.
the word “creation” seems more appropriate than “issue” given the number of processes that must spend every book after printing, from aging to sewing the pages.
“It’s a combination of industrial and artisanal process,” says Garcia Gil, who says it already has about 300 prevendidos and its price is “affordable”.
The book of 240 pages imitate all brands of time that the original codex accumulated in these six centuries of life.
What is known about the codex
With its indecipherable dream world, the Voynich Manuscript has haunted countless experts generating complementary and contradictory about its origins and possible meanings theories.
There is not even consensus on whether it contains meaningful information to humanity or is it just a hoax elaborate.
In 2004, Gordon Rugg, a researcher at Keele University in the UK, tousled the voynicologistas to publish a study stating that historical book could have been created by a fraudster in just three or four months, with illustrations included.
The victim of the scam was made to Roman Emperor Rudolf II, who collected oddities, rarities and magic items . . According to the story, he paid a fortune, 600 gold ducats, believing it was the work of Elizabethan alchemist Roger Bacon
At the time Rugg told BBC: “It does not prove definitively that the manuscript is a scam but it does mean that now is a possible explanation, even more likely. ” BBC tried unsuccessfully to communicate with academic.
Gil García believes that this theory holds no water. Why create a work of such magnitude and not something shorter ?, he asks.
The truth is that the Voynich Manuscript, named in honor of the merchant of used books Polish Wilfrid Voynich , who said he discovered in Italy in 1912, is news every so often by a new theory, discovery or progress.
Without going any further, in 2013 a group of scientists published a study in the journal Plos One claiming they had found linguistic patterns in the text, which would form words meaning.
whether that holds the secret of eternal youth or try a big scam, mystery Manuscript Voynich continues in the XXI century, now with an opulent first edition.
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