Memo

1. Memorandum
Date: February 6, 2015
To: Dr. Grinnell
From: Sarah Dantin
Subject: Voynich Manuscript
Dr. Claudia Grinnell, professor for professional writing at the University of Louisiana at Monroe,
has asked for the research of the mysterious Voynich Manuscript. This piece of writing has can
be considered a world wonder from how little is truly known about what it contains and where
it is from. Many professionals have tried to crack the code surrounding this document, but
there has still been no luck resulting in many questions to be answered. This memo describes
who has owned the manuscript, the attempts to crack the code, what is known about each
section, and the belief that it is a hoax.
Background
In the article what we know about the Voynich Manuscript written by Sravana Reddy and Kevin
Knight, the University of Arizona performed carbon dating on the paper of the manuscript and
dated it to being made in the 15th century. Along with this the McCrone Research Institute
looked at the ink and concluded that it was added to the paper shortly after it was made.
 Wilfried Voynich found the manuscript in an Italian Jesuit college (Schmeh, 2011).
 When Voynich received the book there was a letter in closed that was dated 1666, the
information in this letter led him to believe that a monk by the name of Roger Bacon is
the writer but that has still yet to be proven.
 This letter was addressed to the scholar Athanasius Kircher who received the book from
a man named Johannes Marcus Marci. Marci stated that the book was once owned by
Emperor Rudolf II who purchased it for 600 gold ducats.
 Emperor Rudolf passed the book onto Jacobus Horcicky de Tapenecz.
The manuscript is now housed at the Rare Book and
Manuscript Library at Yale University, which acquired it in
1969 from H.P. Kraus(Talbert, 2013).
Many people have devoted their life to trying to figure out
the origin and meaning of the Voynich manuscript leading
to many websites where pictures of the document can be
found, for those without access to the true document.
Figure 1:
Carbon dating on the Voynich Manuscript
Courtesy of uanews.org

2. Key Points
Many questions surround the Voynich manuscript but there are many things that can be
answered.
 The manuscript was written during the 15th century; however the author is still
unknown.
 Many people have tried to decode the manuscript but no one has been able to do so,
leading too many peoples believes that the manuscript is a hoax.
 The only clues as to what the book can be about are from the hand drawn pictures
which make up each section.

Mystery behind the text and pictures
The Voynich manuscript contains crudely hand drawn pictures and is written in a language that
no one has been able to decipher. The manuscript is organized and set up like a scholarly
document which is the reason that many have said it is not a hoax.
 The manuscript is divided into quires-sections made out of folded parchment, each of
which consists of folios, with writing on both sided of each folio (Reeds 2002).
 The text is written from left to right and the letters are from an alphabet of 40 symbols
arranged into word.
 Lacks punctuation marks but spaces and paragraphs are present ( Montemurro, 2013).
 Almost 220 of the 246 pages are illustrated; these illustrations are what help identify the
sections of the manuscript (Schmech 2011).
 There are six sections: herbal, Astronomical, Biological, Cosmological, Pharmaceutical,
and stars.
 Handwriting analysis shows that there was more than one person who wrote the
manuscript (fictive art).
Many believe that the writing in the manuscript can be made from a coding of a known
language such as Chinese, Welsh, or German. Some even say that it could have been written by
a special needs person who created their own language out of nowhere. Many of these ideas
are considered controversial and have researchers constantly back and forth about the topic.
Decoding the manuscript isn’t the only thing that is controversial but also the pictures. One
would think that a hand drawn picture would be easy to tell what it is and the story behind it
but the pictures in the manuscript are just as mysterious as the text.
The herbal section contains pictures of plants that look nothing like anything today. “Colorful
illustrations depict fantastical plants, astronomical diagrams, and groups of naked women in
bathtubs” ( Graham, 2014).

3. .
There are over 126 illustrations of plants.
 No plant illustrations can be linked to a plant today.
 Some show similarities but at most could be called a
cousin.
A botanist named Hugh O’Neill claimed that two of the plants
could be identified ( Schmech 2011).
 One as a red sunflower
 The second a capsicum
The women that are drawn are not anymore helpful than the
plants.
 They lack clothing which does not help in determining
what time period the manuscript was created
 They also do not give any real insight onto what that
section is about.
Figure 2.
Women in what is described as a
bathtub.
Provided by csicop.org