The Why Files: Operation Podcast

11: The Voynich Manuscript Decoded - Have We Finally Solved the Most Mysterious Book in the World?

26 Jun 2022

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For 600 years the Voynich Manuscript has stumped scholars, cryptographers, physicists, and computer scientists. Now, a researcher in Germany has claimed to have finally decoded the most mysterious book in the world. The Voynich Manuscript is a 240-page medieval codex written in an indecipherable language, full of bizarre drawings of strange plants, astrological symbols and... lots of... naked women. The Voynich Manuscript defies classification and has also defied comprehension. Cryptologists, FBI operatives, respected medievalists, mathematic and scientific scholars, skilled linguists... they've all been left stumped. Even Alan Turing took a crack at it and came up short. It's written from left to right and although it's never been "officially" deciphered, there's definitely a structure to it. Researchers have concluded that the language has 20 to 25 distinct letters but nobody has been able to figure out how the letters fit together. According to cryptanalyst Elizabeth Friedman in 1962, anyone who attempts to translate it is "doomed to utter frustration." Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

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