Ten Overlooked Mysteries in History

The Voynich Manuscript has generated a lot of interest of the past few years. To start here are some links for those who would like further study:

The obligatory link to wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org...

A nice link to references and pictures of the document pages:
www.voynich.nu...
www.voynich.nu...

A couple of articles on Gordon Rugg's studies into reproducing results similar to the Voynich Manuscript with the idea that it was a hoax:
www.wired.com...
www.museumofhoaxes.com...

My personal feeling leans to the idea that the Voynich Document is an elaborate hoax generated by Edward Kelley, a hanger-on in the court of Elizabeth I. Rugg demonstrated that a page could be generated in about one hour using his technique. That would be between 200 man hours to 400 man hours (the document is 234 pages). Working 8 hours a day, a hoaxer could generate the Voynich Manuscript in 25 to 50 days. Considering that Rudolph II, the Holy Roman emperor, paid 600 gold ducats for it (around $30,000 today), the hoaxer would have a nice pay day for his efforts ($75 to $150 an hour). Also he would have the satisfaction of "putting one over" on royalty.

Additional arguments for the hoax theory are:
1. Rugg has shown how a hoaxer of the time period could use a relatively simple process to generate the manuscript. This is the first step in proving something is a hoax. You can show how it could be done.
2. Nobody yet (in spite of their claims) has successfully decoded the Voynich document in spite of using very sophisticated methods. This document stymied the guys who cracked the Japanese and German codes of World War II.
3. Any deciphering method advance so far is much too complicated and take too long. The Voynich Manuscript appears to be a "working document". That is something that you will reference (maybe on a day to day basis). An example would be the cook book you have in your library or the how to fix your car book. In this case the Voynich Manuscript encryption must be fast and simple (e. g., hold it up to a mirror and read right to left).

reply to post by jagdflieger


Great post jagdflieger! Thanks for the input, I too have been interested in the Voynich Manuscript for a while and it still seems strange but a hoax is possible I agreed.

good one... interesting post !!!