There have been many ancient documents found at many places all over the world, some of them are readable and some are not; whereas, some are written in strange languages, letters and alphabets that are difficult even to decipher, found on some monuments, caves and buildings.

In addition to languages, cryptic codes and other methods of coded literature have come to light many a times. One of these, considered today as the most mysterious document or manuscript in the world, is the ‘Voynich Manuscript’.

It is supposed to have been written in the early part of the 15th century and researchers think that it was written somewhere in Northern Italy. But no one can say for certain the exact time or place of its origin. It is still an unknown piece of literature and the name ‘Voynich’ has been given to it by a book dealer, Wilfred Voynich, who bought it in 1912, thinking that he might try to have it translated. But he soon found out that the strange language was unknown to any person he knew and any researcher who tried to translate it. It is composed of a strange kind of language, writing or code and consists of approximately 240 pages written on vellum.

Vellum is a kind of thin paper made from a young animal’s skin. The book has lots of drawings and illustrations, all made by hand and most of them are of herbs and plants. Apart from the labels, etc., the strange thing is the plants too are not of any known origin. For instance, if one part of a plant or flower is somewhat similar to a known species, the rest of the parts, like the root or leaves, are not of the same plant.

It has also been surmised that this strange piece of writing might be some kind of a medical journal comprising herbs and remedies for different ailments. But then there are also other sections. Some have astrological drawings of zodiac signs and constellations. Some have extremely unique and somewhat bizarre plumbing belonging to water tubs, etc., the parts of which do not look like the commonly known shapes of such plumbing material.

The Voynich Manuscript has been studied by professionals, American and British cryptographers, some of them were also experts in coded languages but, so far, no one has been able to translate, understand or even read the mysterious document.

Some of the pages have foldout shapes. The roughly made margins do not have numbers or alphabets but flower like shapes or stars. Some words (if they can be called), are repeated more than twice in the same line, which really make no sense in any known language. Moreover, some people have even gone as far to say it is “babble text”, meaning quite unreadable and making no sense.

The book has six sections dealing probably with different aspects of herbal, medicinal and astrological subjects. The herbal section has one or two drawings of plants on each page with some description of some sort. The section containing astronomical information has circular diagrams consisting of moons and stars. But some zodiac signs seem to be similar to what we know, like two fishes for Pisces and a hunter and bow for Sagittarius and a bull for Taurus. There are also some female figures holding stars or such objects.

Interestingly, there is a constellation drawn, which does not seem to be one that we know of. A cosmological section shows diagrams which are also round but look quite strange and has some kind of a map of perhaps nine islands which have castles and what looks like a volcano. These islands or ‘rosettes’ are connected by a series of causeways.

Another section seems to be some kind of recipe sections with flower or stars in the margins. In the astronomical section, a circular drawing has an irregular object with four curve-like arms.

In 1928, an antiquarian, William Romaine Newbold suggested that the illustration was of a galaxy, which could only be seen with the help of a telescope. He also added that there were other drawings in the journal that were of cells and could only have been studied with a microscope. Other experts do not agree with this assumption. Though the way the script is written seems to be European and also since Voynich bought it in Rome, it is assumed that the writer might have been from those parts as well.

In 2009, researchers from the University of Arizona studied the manuscript and after performing carbon dating, they estimated that the manuscript dates between 1404 and 1438.

Since that time the manual is said to have changed many hands including Emperor Rudolf II who was also the ruler of Rome and King of Bohemia. Then there is an interesting claim that the journal was written by an alchemist named Edward Kelley of Prague, who said that he had “invoked” angels who had narrated the secrets of the herbs and other chemicals in some divine language.

Of course, most people thought he had made it up to squeeze more money from the emperor. There are some who suspect Voynich himself wrote the manual who was an antique book dealer and must have known how to write something that looked like some exotic language or coded text. But there is certainly no proof of such an accusation. After Wilfred Voynich died in 1930, the manuscript was inherited by his widow who also later died leaving it to her close friend. Since there were no more buyers, eventually the Voynich Manuscript was donated in 1969 to Yale University and that is where it sits today catalogued as “MS 408”.

What was the purpose of writing something that no one could read or understand? And who wrote it? Will this most mysterious piece of writing in the world ever be read or its contents understood? Or did a person suffering from mental delusions write it? Then there is another interesting aspect. Maybe it has already served its purpose for someone who knew what it is.