The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Matt Lewis continues his Mystery Month on Gone Medieval with another tantalising enigma of the Middle Ages - possibly the most mysterious manuscript that exists anywhere in the world. Carbon-dated to the early 15th century, the Voynich manuscript is hand-written in an unknown script, embellished with illustrations and diagrams, showing people, fantastical plants and astrological symbols.

Yet the origins, authorship, and purpose of the manuscript continue to baffle experts, which have even included British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. Matt finds out more from Raymond Clemens, Curator of Early Books and Manuscripts at Yale University.

This episode was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg.

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0:24.8	This episode is sponsored by the London Review of Books, Europe's leading magazine of books and
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1:33.1	Welcome to this episode of Gone Made Evil. I'm Matt Lewis. As part of our series on mysteries,
1:37.7	we're going to take a closer look at one of the period's greatest riddles.
1:42.0	The four-inch manuscript has been bemusing, stumping and frustrating scholars for centuries.
1:48.0	It's a book, it's full of illustrations that can be hard to identify and nobody knows what
1:53.2	the text of it says. Does it hold secrets we might unlock? Is there ancient wisdom in the words?
1:59.2	Evidence of a lost culture? Or was it an exercise? A bit of fun? Or maybe even a prank?
	...

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