The Voynich Manuscript
The world's most mysterious text
Installment 1 - an Introduction
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Introduction
In 1870, troops under the command of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy captured the library of the Collegio Roman and confiscated its contents. One particular work escaped that seizure and later captured international fame. It is known as the Voynich Manuscript (VMS). In 1911 or 1912, Wilfrid Voynich (for whom the manuscript has been named), bought the item at a secret auction at the Vatican Library. The VMS is a book of about 240 pages, separated into various folios, and includes what is believed to be handwritten text and hand-drawn images. Carbon-dating of the pages and ink indicate that it was probably written between 1404 and 1438. What makes this work such a center of attention is that no one has ever translated it, nor has anyone offered any accepted interpretation of most of the images within. In fact, no one can definitively prove whether the text is a real language at all! Therefore, the purpose of the manuscript remains a mystery.
Wilfrid Voynich (1865 - 1930)
Many have attempted to translate or otherwise decipher the document. Recently, in 2018, natural language processing expert Greg Kondrak and grad student Bradley Hauer employed Artificial Intelligence to try solving the language of the manuscript. Their work was criticized largely for starting with particular assumptions, and employing improper datasets. They acknowledged this and characterized their efforts only as a “starting point,” but many media outlets nevertheless ran with headlines proclaiming the mystery solved. More dubious “solutions” seemed to be driven either by hubris or the wanting of attention. For example, Nicholas Gibbs claimed to have deciphered the text in an article he published in the Times Literary Supplement. Lisa Fagin Davis, executive director of the Medieval Academy of America, summed up Gibbs’ work quite tersely: “It doesn’t result in Latin that makes sense… Frankly I’m a little surprised the TLS published it... If they had simply sent to it to the Beinecke Library [where the manuscript is currently held], they would have rebutted it in a heartbeat.”
An example of such boisterous headlines. Source: ancient-origins.net
Gerard Cheshire, an academic at the University of Bristol at the time of publishing his paper, earned his own infamy by asserting that the language consisted of a heretofore unknown “proto-Romance language.” Davis did not hold back on criticism of this claim either. She told Ars Technica,
As with most would-be Voynich interpreters, the logic of this proposal is circular and aspirational: he starts with a theory about what a particular series of glyphs might mean, usually because of the word's proximity to an image that he believes he can interpret. He then investigates any number of medieval Romance-language dictionaries until he finds a word that seems to suit his theory. Then he argues that because he has found a Romance-language word that fits his hypothesis, his hypothesis must be right. His "translations" from what is essentially gibberish, an amalgam of multiple languages, are themselves aspirational rather than being actual translations.
In addition, the fundamental underlying argument—that there is such a thing as one 'proto-Romance language'—is completely unsubstantiated and at odds with paleolinguistics. Finally, his association of particular glyphs with particular Latin letters is equally unsubstantiated. His work has never received true peer review, and its publication in this particular journal is no sign of peer confidence.
Greg Kondrak (mentioned above) said of Cheshire’s paper, “Regarding the decipherment of the individual symbols, a number of people have come up with a mapping to Latin letters, but those mappings rarely agree with each other, or with this proposal.” It did not help that Cheshire claimed to have come up with a solution and implemented it in just two weeks, implying some level of genius that hundreds of other scholars lacked. The University of Bristol itself stepped away from any association with that article.
A key problem with much of the research conducted on this manuscript that announces solutions is that many of those researchers start with assumptions based on speculative sources. As Lisa Fagin Davis noted, the mere act of assuming a meaning of a picture that then directs the researcher to a specific language is an utterly flawed approach. Add to that, researcher bias. For instance, in Gibbs’ article, he relied heavily on the existence of a supposedly “lost” index. But no evidence exists supporting the idea; rather, it simply helped fill in gaps in many of Gibbs’ suppositions. Moreover, the fame acquired by proclaiming a solution to a mystery that has vexed scholars for centuries seems to ignite carelessness and jumps to conclusions. Nevertheless, the problem remains an intriguing one. In a time when machine learning and vast computational power sits at our fingertips, I have decided to use the VMS as a real-world test case to put students to task thinking about how one might properly employ AI in solving mysteries such as this.
A sample page from the Voynich Manuscript; credit Yale’s Beinecke Library.
Joining an Elite Club
There is a robust community of true Voynich scholars working to unpack the mysteries of the manuscript. Nick Pelling, one of the most prolific writers on the subject, hosts a website called ciphermysteries.com, which contains a plethora of fascinating work. René Zandbergen also runs a vast electronic library on the topic at his site, voynich.nu. The two of them link to numerous other fascinating corners of the internet where one can read up on any number of issues or explorations related to the manuscript. I do not presume to outpace any of these researchers who have committed literal decades’ worth of efforts. Instead, what I hope to do is to introduce students in Nepal to a fascinating world in which they might apply their specific skillset toward an enigma that demands several. Through exploring various ways modern technological methodologies can be applied to a centuries-old problem, I hope to give students the chance to interact with world renown scholars and, more importantly, to learn how to contribute to vast canons of research by focusing on understudied areas. The goal is not to shout Eureka! and proffer yet another (mistaken) translation. It is to provide context-based additions to the overall field in a scientific manner, and to teach students how scholarship is built brick-by-brick far more frequently than by singular ingenious epiphanies.
This Voynich series I am starting on this page is meant to serve several purposes. First, much of my audience may never have heard of the VMS and will hopefully find it an intriguing story. Second, while I can in no way compete with the exemplary work of Pelling, Zandbergen, and others, I do hope to offer insights unique to my background wherever I might conjure them. After all, I myself have experience in translating archaic texts in one of my past lives (see page 15), and I can speak intelligently from the technological side. Finally, I wish to expound upon some of the truly fascinating work that scholars have put in to this mystery. This will allow me to introduce my audience to certain scientific methods in a way that will be far more intriguing with the VMS as its backdrop.
So for now, stay tuned. My Voynich series will publish between my normal works to keep the content fluid and prevent any staleness. But I expect there will be some really cool stuff to come. In the meantime, if you wish to know more right now, click on any of the linked content above.
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I am a Certified Forensic Computer Examiner, Certified Crime Analyst, Certified Fraud Examiner, and Certified Financial Crimes Investigator with a Juris Doctor and a Master’s degree in history. I spent 10 years working in the New York State Division of Criminal Justice as Senior Analyst and Investigator. Today, I teach Cybersecurity, Ethical Hacking, and Digital Forensics at Softwarica College of IT and E-Commerce in Nepal. In addition, I offer training on Financial Crime Prevention and Investigation. I am also Vice President of Digi Technology in Nepal, for which I have also created its sister company in the USA, Digi Technology America, LLC. We provide technology solutions for businesses or individuals, including cybersecurity, all across the globe. I was a firefighter before I joined law enforcement and now I currently run a non-profit that uses mobile applications and other technologies to create Early Alert Systems for natural disasters for people living in remote or poor areas.
Find more about me on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Mastodon. Or visit my EALS Global Foundation’s webpage page here.
For another scientific mystery, read on about ‘Oumuamua:
