Saturday, July 26

Voynich manuscript

Kannu

Books exert a strange fascination over me. Old books even more. We have a small collection of rare and antiquarian books, some of which are about 300 years old. 

It's the same kind of feeling I get when I'm slowly rubbing the glyphs on a Mexican pyramid or an Egyptian tomb. The feeling of walking and talking with the ancients. It's almost a mystical feeling. Once one of my bosses asked me where I got my ideas from? I told him the old quote. If you want a new idea, read an old book. People who read history widely son are able to draw on the wisdom and experiences of the ancients. We learn by our experiences and by the experiences of others. You cannot just rely on your experiences. No time and why make mistakes. Hence books help you avoid mistakes at the least and at the best know how to take advantage. 

Imagine this manuscript. If you get a chance, pop into the British library and see their display of rare books. Blows your mind. 

Love

Baba

Voynich manuscript - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voynich_manuscript


The , described as “the world’s most mysterious manuscript”,[3] is a work which dates to the early 15th century (1404–1438), possibly from northern Italy.[1][2] It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912.

Some pages are missing, but there are now about 240 vellum pages, most with illustrations. Much of the manuscript resembles herbal manuscripts of the 1500s, seeming to present illustrations and information about plants and their possible uses for medical purposes. However, most of the plants do not match known species, and the manuscript’s script and language remain unknown. Possibly some form of ciphertext, the Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II.[4] It has defied all decipherment attempts, becoming a famous case of historical cryptology. The mystery surrounding it has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript a subject of both fanciful theories and novels. None of the many speculative solutions proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified.[5]

The Voynich manuscript was donated to Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1969, where it is catalogued under call number MS 408 and called a “Cipher Manuscript”.[6][7]