In 1912, rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich added to his collection of his London shop the strangest book he never read. It’s not entirely clear how the manuscript came into Voynich’s possession, but it most likely came from the Jesuit Order, which around that time, sold some of its holdings from the library of the Roman College (by then Pontifical Gregorian University) to the Vatican and apparently to a few others as well.
The Jesuits didn’t read it either, not even the scholar Athanasius Kircher, who was likely responsible for the inclusion of the manuscript in the collection.
Before him, the two hundred-plus-page manuscript probably belonged to a physician by the name of Johannes Marcus Marci, who likely received it from alchemist and antique collector George Baresch, who may have gotten it from Jacobus Horcicky de Tepenecz, who served as the personal physician to Emperor Rudolph II of Germany. Emperor Rudolf assumed the manuscript was the work of 13th century philosopher Roger Bacon and purchased it for a fairly large sum.
But none of these men ever read the book.
Because they couldn’t. What came to be known in the 20th century as the Voynich Manuscript is an enduring puzzle. Its vellum pages have been carbon-dated to the early fifteenth century, which means Bacon didn’t write it. They are filled with an unknown language or code, written by a single, careful hand, and accompanied by lots of strange pictures of unidentifiable plants, weird symbols, and plenty of naked ladies.
Housed today in Yale’s Beinecke Library, and available to view online if you want to take a stab at it, the Voynich Manuscript has been defying translators for pretty much as long as it has existed. Recent attempts at translation by television writer Nicholas Gibbs and University of Bristol research assistant Gerard Cheshire have been pretty quickly shot down by Voynich scholars and enthusiasts. And in 2016, even AI failed to convince those in the know that it could crack the code.
It’s been suggested that the book is a medical guide of some sort, that it’s written in Hebrew anagrams, that it’s nothing more than an elaborate hoax, or that it’s of otherworldly origin. All we know for certain is that it’s weird, oddly fascinating, and unreadable. Perhaps it contains the answers to the greatest mysteries of the universe.
But as frustrating as it is that there’s this one book that has remained unread by everyone except, presumably, its author, I can’t help but think there are probably a lot of books no one has ever been able to read. Most languish on hard drives or exist only as scribbles in tattered notebooks. Others have been locked up in contracts with defunct presses, trapped away from the public by copyright law.
Hopefully that last possibility doesn’t apply to too many books. Very soon it will apply to one fewer, as the copyright of my first historical novel, Smoke Rose to Heaven, will be returning to me in the coming weeks. What this means is that very soon (February 4th to be exact), I will be releasing it finally into the world for anyone to read.
I can’t promise that it contains the answers to the greatest mysteries of the universe, but it’ll be fairly easy to read because it’s written in English without anagrams, strange symbols, or unidentifiable plants. For better or worse, it doesn’t have any pictures of naked ladies, either.
I’ll have a lot more to share about this most elusive of my books in the coming weeks. You can’t read it just yet,* but maybe while you’re waiting, you can decipher the Voynich Manuscript.
*Okay, you can actually get a sneak peek if you would like to commit to giving Smoke Rose to Heaven an honest review. If that’s something that interests you, drop me a line at s_angleton@charter.net before the publication date and I’ll happily send you a complimentary e-book. You can check out the back cover blurb and read a sample here.
Author Sarah Angleton 
Congratulations, Sarah. The story of this book – not the story in this book – could be a novel in itself!
The funny thing is that the novel centers on a lost manuscript. I should have known better.
So happy your baby is coming home! Can’t wait to read it.
Thanks so much, Diane!
You forgot the theory that it was written by the alien race! Congrats on getting your first-born back!
Thanks! That’s my personal favorite explanation, too. I wonder if Ancient Aliens has ever done an episode about it.
I’ve only ever watched random episodes of Ancient Aliens, but if I had to guess I would say yes, they likely have.
Congrats 🎉
Thank you!
It’s often awkward territory dealing with rights reversion. As you say, a lot of stuff can end up trapped by publisher contracts with no termination clauses. I count myself lucky in being able to get the bulk of mine back from PRH. All best wishes for the re-release!
Thanks! This is actually a first time release. The publisher stopped doing business and stopped all communication with authors before my release. That was actually lucky for me. Most of the authors had to fight to have books pulled down from Amazon, etc., and stopped receiving any royalties. It has been a mess.
Glad you escaped the mess with the license and can publish! I had that happen, years ago, when I was writing a series of travel guides: the publisher was bankrupted while in possession of several of my manuscripts, and owing me money. A very, very long time later, the receivers paid 2 cents in the dollar (and I was at the end of a VERY long list of creditors). But there was a kicker. The publisher then purchased the assets of his old company at the receiver price (including my work) – which he decided gave him full legal title to my intellectual property – and tried to get another author to polish it up a bit, intending to publish it under that author’s name. Luckily the author in question had integrity and wouldn’t steal my work. But I never did get it back.
Yikes!
So glad you got your book back! Congrats!
Thank you!
So I trust your book is not alien in origin and does not include pictures of naked ladies? Congrats, Sarah!
No naked ladies. And home grown right here on good ol planter Earth. Thanks!
Is that the official cover? I LIKE it!!!! As far as that mystery book and all those drawings that can’t be interpreted…it’s probably the original IKEA assembly manual.
You cracked it! Yes, that is the official cover. Thank you!
Thanks For Keeping Things Family Friendly! It makes things easier!
I have nieces and nephews who read this blog. They’re adults, but still. And then there’s my mom.😊
Makes upvotes easier for me!
I have learned a lot just reading the comments. This is a fascinating story and I had heard that an AI was going to crack, but never found out that it hadn’t.
It seems like it’s pretty dubious. https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/1/16959454/voynich-manuscript-mystery-ai-decoded-debunked
That just makes it all the more weird. Thanks.