The Book Nobody Can Translate | Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is one of the most mysterious books ever written. It’s the book that nobody has been able to translate.
---

If you’ve ever picked up a book, and found it’s full of surreal plants, unknown diagrams, zodiac rings, and a language which is completely undecipherable, you’re likely looking at a copy of the Voynich manuscript: the book that nobody can translate.

This medieval text, which has been dated to the early 15th century, is one of the most mysterious books ever written, as even after hundreds of years, no one has been able to definitively decode it…

So for this entry into the archive, we’ll take a look at this bizarre book, and see what we can learn about its history and possible meaning.

0:00 The Untranslatable Book
1:06 The Artwork
2:33 The Writing
3:35 The Author
4:39 Another Possibility…
5:31 Outro

Sources:

Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary. I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.

Images from Wikimedia Commons and Yale University Library (fair use)

♫ Music credit to Hooksounds ♫

#CuriousArchive #VoynichManuscript #Mystery

[dank_smirkndchannel]

If it is a joke, it reminds me of that time where scientists wanted to translate some Norse runes that were considered sacred. They eventually managed to get access to them which were high up on a wall. When they translated them they found out that the runes pretty much said "This is very tall." So yeah, I support the idea that the Voynich Manuscript is an example of ancient shitposting,

[DraptorRonin]

I like to think that this is a medieval-version of the Codex Sephranius.

[jscotthatcher]

i always found this book extremely interesting. it's almost like someone was trying to do world building for a fantasy/sci-fi world in that world's native language. sorta like a book about the klingon homeworld written and illustrated by a klingon.

[nexusmc]

The ancient King of Comedy managed to create the ultimate everlasting joke

[Testosterooster]

The creator was probably laughing his ass off as he was writing this book.

[a.fern_draws]

This book has fictional plants, elaborate tables and diagrams, and elaborate chemical equipment? All in a fictional language?


They were truly playing DnD before it was cool.

[joellamm]

Imagine the author telling his friend why he wrote it like:
"For the memes"

[laurelsilberman]

I’m 90% in the category that either an individual or a group of individuals created this incredibly bizarre art piece as a source of entertainment or humor—we too often give little credit to artists of history for their humor. I’m so glad that on your channel you’ve highlighted a few of these hilarious instances, and have done so again here. Your channel really is one-of-a-kind!

Edit: I have nothing to do with the nonsense in the replies. I just think this book is obviously a one of a kind mystery and I like thinking about it as an artpiece/literary artifact, and that CA provided some plausible theories. Good lord did people get in a heated debate *unrelated* to my actual comment. Lol.

[ursidae]

There are three untranslatable books that I know of. One was a purposeful art project, the other has been demonstrated to have some translation and may in fact be an encoded prayer book. The third is this enigma, the Voynich Manuscript.

[LunDruid]

"We sometimes think of past societies as being perpetually serious."
Only by people who haven't read Canterbury Tales. XDD

[robertgerman]

Imagine if in the far future aliens find the ruins of our society and see a book about memes. That might be their equivalent of the Voynich Manuscript.

[tommythecat]

The mystery was partially solved thanks to mathematics, they did a frequential analysis of the symbols, how often they appear, and in what strings, order, those kinds of things. Turns out, it's probably gibberish, as it lacks the structure of a real language (things that even isolated languages or very distant ones have in common, no matter what). This means that it's either a fake, invented by someone to fool a buyer, a noble, etc, or a unique language with a syntax, a grammar and a structure like no other. Statistically, it's much more likely the former is the correct explanation!

[andreamenicatti]

Imagine a situation like this:
Some archeologists find a manuscript and can't understand what its' written
After months they finally able to decipher the manuscript
They find out that it literally spells "never gonna give you up"

[MrMman]

I think it was a scribe's attempt to baffle a printer.
A Gutenberge Print Press was reliant on molds and had an advantage dealing with typical writing or drawing with Roman Letters and Typical florishes.
So a scribe must have wanted to draw something to test the limits of printing or perhaps to prove scribing superior.
I have no idea if his plan worked as expected or the printers were able to be ingenious and creative enough to replicate the manuscript as expected.
All in all such a manuscript would be an oddity and collector item, since it was not made to replicate reality, but to test a technology ending a profession that was quickly becoming irrelevant.

[samsonsoturian]

Someone should totally write a Lovecraftian tale using this book.

[kai_plays_khomus]

The one thing which might speak against a prank most is the sheer effort.
The ressources for making the codex alone would be very expensive at the time it was made, and somebody able and willing to write a whole manuscript would probably use it rather for something more substantial, not to speak about the time put into writing it.
In my eyes the ratio of investment and result doesn't fit the prank idea - but I'm not an expert and had to use the often times misleading institution called "common sense", so I could be totally wrong.

[triggerfish]

"We sometimes think of past societies as serious."

Yeah, tell that to all the art enthusiasts & literature buffs. I mean, Mozart wrote a composition about licking butts & Mona Lisa could've been a guy who decided to pose as a woman just for laughs.

[neurosect]

Imagine it’s actually just really old polish that nobody has been able to translate

[Wecoc]

Maybe it's an artist's imagination book of that era, a bit like the very old equivalent of "Encyclopedia Of A World That Doesn't Exist"

[redfeatheredreptile]

Imagine having your headworld journal with your own language so perplex collectors that its legendary hundreds of years in the future.
Writer goals