1 00:00:03,630 --> 00:00:10,110 Tonight, a mysterious medieval book written in a secret language so complex 2 00:00:10,110 --> 00:00:12,630 even the world's best code breakers can't track it. 3 00:00:13,710 --> 00:00:20,630 No one has been able to translate or read a single word, a single letter. 4 00:00:20,890 --> 00:00:26,250 Known as the Voynich Manuscript, it's obsessed everyone from scholars to 5 00:00:26,250 --> 00:00:27,350 conspiracy theorists. 6 00:00:27,970 --> 00:00:32,549 They sincerely believe that this book has something monumental to share. 7 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:38,460 Now we'll uncover the top theories surrounding the origins of this cryptic 8 00:00:39,260 --> 00:00:44,000 Voynich thinks this is some sort of secret manual for the practice of 9 00:00:44,220 --> 00:00:50,100 The Voynich manuscript is written in glossolalia, which is the language of 10 00:00:50,100 --> 00:00:51,100 tongues. 11 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:57,040 Has he pulled off one of the greatest hoaxes in history? Can modern technology 12 00:00:57,040 --> 00:00:59,540 finally unlock its impenetrable code? 13 00:01:00,590 --> 00:01:04,950 It's the first definitive answer we have about this book in 400 years. 14 00:01:05,330 --> 00:01:08,270 What is the Voynich Manuscript? 15 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:30,200 1912. 16 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:37,380 Just outside Rome, famed Polish -American rare bookseller Wilfrid 17 00:01:37,380 --> 00:01:41,400 enters a centuries -old Jesuit college. 18 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:48,200 Voynich operates what is probably the world's largest rare books business at 19 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:49,119 time. 20 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:55,880 He's got this incredible knack for digging up the most valuable and the 21 00:01:55,880 --> 00:02:00,920 sought -after manuscripts on the planet. His collection is worth millions. 22 00:02:02,260 --> 00:02:05,000 Voynich hopes his next great find is here. 23 00:02:05,260 --> 00:02:09,740 The Jesuits need funds to support their college, so what they decide to do is 24 00:02:09,740 --> 00:02:13,820 they decide to sell some of their most ancient texts very discreetly. 25 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:20,500 Voynich negotiates a shrewd deal, as always, and he adds 30 more books to his 26 00:02:20,500 --> 00:02:25,310 collection. which he will try to sell for a significant profit back at his 27 00:02:25,310 --> 00:02:26,310 in London. 28 00:02:26,910 --> 00:02:29,750 One book in particular stands out. 29 00:02:30,290 --> 00:02:36,110 As with all of his purchases, Voynich looks for elaborate 30 00:02:36,110 --> 00:02:41,930 bindings, beautiful books, heavily illustrated, illuminated manuscripts, 31 00:02:41,930 --> 00:02:46,110 printed books, really luxurious objects. 32 00:02:46,410 --> 00:02:52,320 But among them... his eyes caught by what he later called an ugly duckling. 33 00:02:52,820 --> 00:02:58,180 This particular manuscript is small. It's only about 9 1⁄2 by 6 1⁄2 inches, 34 00:02:58,180 --> 00:03:02,620 it's bound in goatskin. It's about 230 pages long, but there is some evidence 35 00:03:02,620 --> 00:03:03,800 that some of the pages are missing. 36 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:07,300 Also, some pages are foldable sheets of varying size. 37 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:12,500 And this book is filled with lines upon lines of neatly handwritten text and 38 00:03:12,500 --> 00:03:15,160 elaborate drawings. But here's the thing. 39 00:03:16,060 --> 00:03:17,160 None of it... 40 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:18,740 makes any sense. 41 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:27,800 There are a couple hundred detailed drawings of plant species, none of which 42 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:33,340 be identified. There are astrological drawings of constellations that don't 43 00:03:33,340 --> 00:03:40,140 exist. There's a section where nude pregnant women are engaging in 44 00:03:40,140 --> 00:03:45,360 these baths and rituals with these seemingly interconnected tubes. 45 00:03:46,510 --> 00:03:51,410 And then there are these strange hybrids, these plants with human organs. 46 00:03:52,290 --> 00:03:55,270 And some of these plants even sprout disembodied heads. 47 00:03:55,990 --> 00:03:59,470 Needless to say, it is wild. But it's also indecipherable. 48 00:04:00,390 --> 00:04:05,530 And as for that lovely handwritten text, the entire thing is written in a 49 00:04:05,530 --> 00:04:08,410 language that no one has ever seen before. 50 00:04:08,710 --> 00:04:12,110 There are very clear and obvious words and letters, but they're totally 51 00:04:12,110 --> 00:04:14,230 unrecognizable. So Voynich... 52 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:18,839 Assume that this is some type of code. In addition to experience with codes, 53 00:04:19,079 --> 00:04:24,300 Voynich speaks Polish, Russian, and English fluently and has a working 54 00:04:24,300 --> 00:04:25,700 of 15 other languages. 55 00:04:26,740 --> 00:04:31,480 He was born to a noble family in the Russian Empire. He was educated at three 56 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:32,480 the top universities. 57 00:04:33,310 --> 00:04:36,310 And then he basically becomes an anti -Tsarist revolutionary. 58 00:04:37,150 --> 00:04:38,150 He's arrested. 59 00:04:38,510 --> 00:04:43,810 He's sent to a Siberian prison. He escapes the prison. And then he heads to 60 00:04:43,810 --> 00:04:48,210 London, where he continues his revolutionary activities for a while 61 00:04:48,210 --> 00:04:51,890 friend of his at the British Museum suggests that he get into the rare book 62 00:04:51,890 --> 00:04:52,890 trade. 63 00:04:53,690 --> 00:04:58,590 Voynich knows everything there is to know about rare books. He's connected to 64 00:04:58,590 --> 00:05:00,030 all the top literary scholars. 65 00:05:00,370 --> 00:05:02,370 He knows multiple languages. 66 00:05:02,950 --> 00:05:06,490 He knows all about codes and code breaking from his years as a Russian 67 00:05:06,490 --> 00:05:07,490 revolutionary. 68 00:05:07,970 --> 00:05:12,650 Point is, if anyone is going to be able to make sense out of this manuscript, 69 00:05:12,870 --> 00:05:14,850 it's going to be Wilfred Voynich. 70 00:05:16,130 --> 00:05:20,110 Voynich spent years trying to decipher the code, really the rest of his life. 71 00:05:20,430 --> 00:05:25,370 And he reaches out to all of the top code breakers at the time to help, and 72 00:05:25,370 --> 00:05:29,230 of them can crack it. He sticks with it because he has a hunch that this might 73 00:05:29,230 --> 00:05:31,830 be the most valuable book he's ever encountered. 74 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:35,160 And if he can figure this out, it could be worth millions. 75 00:05:37,620 --> 00:05:42,560 Based on the materials used to create the book, the parchment, the style of 76 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:46,140 Voynich thinks it's going to date to the 13th century. 77 00:05:46,860 --> 00:05:51,960 So while he can't decipher the words, the images of plants and other sorts of 78 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:56,400 natural phenomena lead him to conclude that it's probably some sort of guide to 79 00:05:56,400 --> 00:05:58,640 a field that used to be called natural philosophy. 80 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:04,720 And before there were modern scientists, this is how people described the study 81 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:09,120 of nature in the physical universe. From Aristotle to Isaac Newton, all of these 82 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:11,540 early scientists were actually natural philosophers. 83 00:06:12,740 --> 00:06:17,360 So because of that date and the contents of the actual manuscript, Voynich 84 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:21,380 thinks this is some sort of secret manual for the practice of alchemy. 85 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:29,140 Alchemy is this philosophical, part science, part magic practice that 86 00:06:29,140 --> 00:06:30,760 medieval Europe in the 12th century. 87 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:37,620 And its practitioners tried to purify certain materials, so turn lead into 88 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:38,800 and to cure diseases. 89 00:06:39,260 --> 00:06:44,100 Now, none of this stuff actually worked, but it was strongly believed in, and it 90 00:06:44,100 --> 00:06:45,400 was written about for centuries. 91 00:06:46,580 --> 00:06:49,740 Alchemists' real objective is perfection of the soul. 92 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:54,260 And they'll do this by creating something called the magnum opus, or 93 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:59,480 which was the philosopher's stone, a mythical substance that was said to be 94 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:01,620 to grant immortality, among other things. 95 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:08,440 According to Voynich, there is only one early alchemist brilliant enough to have 96 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:09,700 produced this book. 97 00:07:10,420 --> 00:07:14,800 Almost no one in Europe was creating alchemy textbooks at the time. They were 98 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:18,740 just translating older works. So Voynich thinks this is Roger Bacon. 99 00:07:24,450 --> 00:07:28,130 Voyage believes the book is written in code because he believes that whoever 100 00:07:28,130 --> 00:07:29,830 wrote it needed to keep something secret. 101 00:07:30,250 --> 00:07:33,590 Roger Bacon, today he's incredibly well respected. 102 00:07:34,030 --> 00:07:37,010 He's known as one of the early pioneers of the scientific method. 103 00:07:37,330 --> 00:07:41,970 He was the first person in Europe to record the formula for gunpowder. But 104 00:07:41,970 --> 00:07:42,949 here's the problem. 105 00:07:42,950 --> 00:07:46,290 He's also a monk and a modest member of the clergy. 106 00:07:46,590 --> 00:07:51,430 And the church doesn't take too kindly to some of his more out there alchemy 107 00:07:51,430 --> 00:07:52,430 practices. 108 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:58,060 In fact, some of Bacon's contemporaries accuse him of being a wizard. 109 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:05,580 He has an automated mechanical clockwork head that he talks to and consults 110 00:08:05,580 --> 00:08:10,200 with. And like all alchemists, he's also obsessed with forging the philosopher's 111 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:12,420 stone and granting immortality. 112 00:08:12,980 --> 00:08:16,540 But in the church, only God can grant eternal life. 113 00:08:16,990 --> 00:08:21,150 So these are some very dangerous, heretical ideas that Bacon is toying 114 00:08:21,150 --> 00:08:25,770 right under the watchful eye of his Franciscan superiors. But Bacon's not 115 00:08:25,770 --> 00:08:26,970 entirely a crackpot. 116 00:08:28,170 --> 00:08:33,970 He thinks that there's a way to bring the church and science together. 117 00:08:34,510 --> 00:08:36,309 Not everyone agrees with him. 118 00:08:36,669 --> 00:08:40,750 He thinks these ideas can complement each other. They don't have to be 119 00:08:40,750 --> 00:08:41,750 antagonist. 120 00:08:42,510 --> 00:08:48,690 It's very fortunate for Bacon that he has the protection of a very high 121 00:08:48,690 --> 00:08:55,370 patron and intellectual correspondent, the Pope. But when Pope 122 00:08:55,370 --> 00:09:02,210 Clement dies in 1268, Roger Bacon's protection is gone, and within a decade, 123 00:09:02,450 --> 00:09:03,450 he's arrested. 124 00:09:03,590 --> 00:09:07,270 Bacon is eventually allowed to return to his studies, but he never puts forth 125 00:09:07,270 --> 00:09:09,590 any more of these so -called heretical texts. 126 00:09:09,850 --> 00:09:11,790 He mostly sticks to theological writing. 127 00:09:13,510 --> 00:09:18,550 Unless, of course, he continued his alchemy research in secret and wrote it 128 00:09:18,550 --> 00:09:19,590 into a coded book. 129 00:09:20,790 --> 00:09:27,430 So if Voynich is right, and this manuscript can be definitively 130 00:09:27,430 --> 00:09:34,430 with Roger Bacon, suddenly the manuscript itself would be worth untold 131 00:09:34,430 --> 00:09:35,209 of money. 132 00:09:35,210 --> 00:09:37,110 First, Voynich must prove. 133 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:39,380 Bacon truly authored the manuscript. 134 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:44,040 Even though Voynich can't crack the code, he does find a letter dated back 135 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:48,680 1665 that's written by a very important Czech scientist and doctor named Jan 136 00:09:48,680 --> 00:09:49,680 Marek Marcik. 137 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:54,560 He says he has a coded book that fits precisely this description, and he's 138 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:58,400 giving it to his friend, a renowned codebreaker, Athanasius Kircher. 139 00:09:59,660 --> 00:10:03,520 Marchi also gives a little bit of history on the book. He says it was 140 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:07,220 the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II of Germany about a hundred years prior, 141 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:10,600 sometime in the late 1500s, for a large sum of gold. 142 00:10:10,900 --> 00:10:15,780 The letter mentions Roger Bacon by name as the potential author in the late 143 00:10:15,780 --> 00:10:20,540 1200s. How did the book go from Bacon to Emperor Rudolf? 144 00:10:20,820 --> 00:10:22,780 Wilfred Voynich thinks the connection is Dr. 145 00:10:23,100 --> 00:10:24,100 John Dee. 146 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:26,460 Dr. Dee was born in 1527. 147 00:10:27,310 --> 00:10:32,330 He's a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and he's an avid astrologer 148 00:10:32,330 --> 00:10:34,530 an occult scientist who studies cipher. 149 00:10:34,790 --> 00:10:39,450 And from a young age, he has access to a lot of Roger Bacon manuscripts. 150 00:10:39,910 --> 00:10:45,950 An accomplished cryptologist himself, Dee tries to decode the manuscript, but 151 00:10:45,950 --> 00:10:46,950 fails. 152 00:10:47,949 --> 00:10:51,910 Eventually, John Dee brings the manuscript to Prague, where Emperor 153 00:10:51,910 --> 00:10:57,910 buy it from him for 600 ducats, or roughly $100 ,000 today. So Voynich has 154 00:10:57,910 --> 00:11:01,710 fervent belief that Roger Bacon wrote this book, but all the evidence is 155 00:11:01,710 --> 00:11:02,810 circumstantial at this point. 156 00:11:04,030 --> 00:11:08,230 If Voynich wants the world to believe that this is a Bacon original and make a 157 00:11:08,230 --> 00:11:11,430 fortune, he's got to decode this thing once and for all. 158 00:11:15,170 --> 00:11:16,650 A mysterious manuscript. 159 00:11:17,340 --> 00:11:21,980 Dating back centuries, one with a seemingly unbreakable cipher. 160 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:27,540 When collector Wilfred Voynich finds this book, he spends years trying to 161 00:11:27,540 --> 00:11:29,440 who wrote it and why. 162 00:11:29,980 --> 00:11:34,500 Voynich showcases the book at exhibitions and lecture tours with the 163 00:11:34,500 --> 00:11:35,840 somebody can figure it out. 164 00:11:36,140 --> 00:11:40,340 And of course, he's getting fame and publicity all the while and hoping to 165 00:11:40,340 --> 00:11:41,159 a sale. 166 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:46,140 He's trying to sell it for $100 ,000, which would be the most anyone had ever 167 00:11:46,140 --> 00:11:50,240 gotten. for an old manuscript ever in history. 168 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:55,500 Other top codebreakers are trying to decipher the book as well. For example, 169 00:11:55,540 --> 00:11:58,640 you've got William Friedman, the man who was responsible for breaking the 170 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:02,180 Japanese code purple during World War II. He's also one of the founders of the 171 00:12:02,180 --> 00:12:04,180 NSA, one of its chief cryptologists. 172 00:12:04,460 --> 00:12:08,520 He spent 30 years trying before declaring that cracking the manuscript's 173 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:09,560 was impossible. 174 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,860 Unfortunately, Voynich dies in 1930. 175 00:12:14,670 --> 00:12:16,630 before he can solve the mystery. 176 00:12:16,950 --> 00:12:21,310 When Voynich dies, he leaves the book to his wife, Ethel, who lives until 1960. 177 00:12:21,530 --> 00:12:24,930 And then after a couple of short -term owners, the book ends up at the Yale 178 00:12:24,930 --> 00:12:27,550 Library in 1969, where it remains today. 179 00:12:28,770 --> 00:12:32,930 It's an artifact that, to this day, captures the public's imagination 180 00:12:32,930 --> 00:12:35,930 it's both intriguing and infuriating. 181 00:12:36,650 --> 00:12:40,570 I mean, we can see it. We can touch it. We know this thing exists. It's not a 182 00:12:40,570 --> 00:12:44,550 figment of anyone's imagination, except no one knows exactly what it is. 183 00:12:44,750 --> 00:12:49,650 It remains pure mystery. And once we have the advent of the Internet, that 184 00:12:49,650 --> 00:12:51,350 mystery explodes. 185 00:12:54,650 --> 00:13:00,110 When Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Library posts scanned pages of the manuscript 186 00:13:00,110 --> 00:13:04,730 online in 2004, the book gains even more attention. 187 00:13:06,060 --> 00:13:10,680 Suddenly, the Voynich manuscript is world famous. It's attracting millions 188 00:13:10,680 --> 00:13:14,940 people who want to figure it out. Every year brings multiple major news stories 189 00:13:14,940 --> 00:13:20,180 about potential breakthroughs. One of the biggest breakthroughs occurs in 2009 190 00:13:20,180 --> 00:13:22,740 at the University of Arizona. 191 00:13:23,380 --> 00:13:27,000 Researchers realized that while the language of the book might be impossible 192 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:31,980 understand, the book's physical materials aren't. They can be analyzed. 193 00:13:33,390 --> 00:13:38,570 The 234 pages of the book are made up of calfskin parchment, and because they 194 00:13:38,570 --> 00:13:41,230 are organic in nature, they can be radiocarbon dated. 195 00:13:41,870 --> 00:13:46,150 This is obviously a big deal. This is a chance to finally get some answers that 196 00:13:46,150 --> 00:13:48,170 have eluded scholars for generations. 197 00:13:48,470 --> 00:13:51,790 They take samples from several sections of the book just to be sure. 198 00:13:52,070 --> 00:13:55,450 But the results aren't what anyone anticipated. 199 00:13:55,950 --> 00:14:00,490 Remember, Wilfred Voynich thought this was a 13th century text by Roger Bacon. 200 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:07,460 But the pages date back to the early 15th century, so about 140 years after 201 00:14:07,460 --> 00:14:08,580 Roger Bacon's death. 202 00:14:08,860 --> 00:14:14,220 And just like that, the primary theory behind this strange book shot down. 203 00:14:14,560 --> 00:14:19,520 But this is still fantastic news. It's probably the first definitive answer we 204 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:21,820 have about this book in over 400 years. 205 00:14:22,220 --> 00:14:24,040 So now that the parchment's been dated, 206 00:14:24,740 --> 00:14:26,920 scholars want to keep the momentum going. 207 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:29,820 So Voynich's hypothesis... 208 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:34,740 that this was a 13th century book, led him to research what possible authors 209 00:14:34,740 --> 00:14:38,200 there could have been in the 13th century to write an alchemical text. 210 00:14:38,540 --> 00:14:40,020 And that led him to Roger Bacon. 211 00:14:41,580 --> 00:14:46,220 With this new dating of the manuscript, scholars do the same thing again. They 212 00:14:46,220 --> 00:14:50,240 wonder, in the 1400s, who's known to be an author, an illustrator? 213 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:51,820 Who's writing in code? 214 00:14:52,300 --> 00:14:54,620 Who has an interest in science and alchemy? 215 00:14:55,220 --> 00:14:57,620 And they think, who could have written the book? 216 00:14:58,979 --> 00:15:04,680 In 2017, one researcher announces she might know the answer. 217 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:10,700 Could this book actually have been written by none other than Leonardo da 218 00:15:14,410 --> 00:15:17,990 Dr. Edith Sherwood is a retired biomedical scientist. 219 00:15:18,310 --> 00:15:22,390 And these days, she's fascinated by the Voynich Manuscript. And she's spent 220 00:15:22,390 --> 00:15:24,010 countless hours studying it. 221 00:15:24,250 --> 00:15:29,450 And according to her, there's only one European author in the 1400s that fits 222 00:15:29,450 --> 00:15:30,449 the bill. 223 00:15:30,450 --> 00:15:35,590 In 2002, she publishes an article comparing the manuscript to the 224 00:15:35,590 --> 00:15:37,050 other works of Leonardo da Vinci. 225 00:15:37,650 --> 00:15:39,710 So then, all of a sudden... 226 00:15:39,950 --> 00:15:43,810 She has this new evidence of the carbon dating. So now she really is convinced 227 00:15:43,810 --> 00:15:47,030 she's onto something, and she spends more time researching the manuscript. 228 00:15:48,330 --> 00:15:52,390 Fifteen years later, she publishes a new article in much greater detail. 229 00:15:52,790 --> 00:15:56,450 And the evidence she finds is actually pretty compelling. 230 00:15:57,150 --> 00:16:00,370 Sherwood starts with a detailed handwriting analysis. 231 00:16:01,310 --> 00:16:05,850 Both the anonymous author of the Voynich manuscript and Leonardo da Vinci use a 232 00:16:05,850 --> 00:16:08,750 type of writing that's called humanist minuscule script. 233 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:12,580 the style that was developed in Italy in the early 1400s. 234 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:16,400 It's different than a lot of what was being written at the time. Most 235 00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:19,900 texts were written in something called Gothic script or black letter. 236 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:25,160 And it's a pretty obvious difference when you look at them side by side. And 237 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:26,600 a lot of people were writing like this. 238 00:16:26,980 --> 00:16:28,940 But Leonardo da Vinci was. 239 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:33,480 Not only that, but Leonardo da Vinci and the author of the Voynich manuscript 240 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:35,880 have a lot of features that are very similar. 241 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,040 Neither writes with capital letters. 242 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:43,660 neither punctuate, there are no line breaks or paragraph breaks, and also 243 00:16:43,660 --> 00:16:45,040 never connect their letters. 244 00:16:46,060 --> 00:16:50,060 Dr. Sherwood then turns their attention to the manuscript's drawings. 245 00:16:50,460 --> 00:16:55,700 So we all know that Leonardo da Vinci was, he's an okay artist, to put it 246 00:16:55,700 --> 00:16:59,220 mildly. No, obviously, he's great. All you have to do is look at his works like 247 00:16:59,220 --> 00:17:03,060 the Mona Lisa, which show off his otherworldly talent. But in his 248 00:17:03,300 --> 00:17:07,319 they're just full of these crude drawings and studies. 249 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:12,220 Of course, no one would suggest that the illustrations in the Voynich manuscript 250 00:17:12,220 --> 00:17:18,020 rise to the level of da Vinci's greatest works or mature works. Nevertheless, 251 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:19,319 there are some similarities. 252 00:17:19,980 --> 00:17:23,920 The one thing that was very hard to do in the 15th century when drawing and 253 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:28,860 writing was to create perfect circles. Without modern drafting equipment, only 254 00:17:28,860 --> 00:17:34,160 really, really talented artists could create a perfect circle only using pen 255 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:36,220 ink. But da Vinci could. 256 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,160 And so could the author of the Voynich manuscript. 257 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:45,240 Dr. Sherwood believes one page of circular drawings provides the best clue 258 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:51,020 all. There's an astrological chart representing the sign of Aries with 15 259 00:17:51,020 --> 00:17:53,160 women sitting in birthing tubs. 260 00:17:53,820 --> 00:17:59,380 The women appear to be pregnant, and in one of the tubs there's a baby, and that 261 00:17:59,380 --> 00:18:01,260 mother no longer appears to be pregnant. 262 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:05,500 The woman is holding a striped string with a star on the end. 263 00:18:06,090 --> 00:18:08,330 while the other women are holding plain strings. 264 00:18:08,970 --> 00:18:12,930 According to Dr. Sherwood, this page is a birth record. 265 00:18:14,050 --> 00:18:17,910 Aries the ram represents the month of April, and because of the 15 women, she 266 00:18:17,910 --> 00:18:21,030 believes that this birth took place on April 15th. 267 00:18:21,570 --> 00:18:25,870 And the woman holding the baby is positioned roughly at 10 o 'clock. And 268 00:18:25,870 --> 00:18:31,290 what? Leonardo da Vinci was born just around 10 p .m. on April 15, 269 00:18:31,550 --> 00:18:32,950 1452. 270 00:18:33,770 --> 00:18:37,410 And of course, the final clue is that the manuscript is written in code. And 271 00:18:37,410 --> 00:18:41,110 Leonardo da Vinci famously wrote his notebooks in code throughout his adult 272 00:18:41,110 --> 00:18:46,190 life. He typically used a mirror image code that also sometimes combined or 273 00:18:46,190 --> 00:18:47,550 separated certain words. 274 00:18:48,430 --> 00:18:52,630 Could the Voynich Manuscript be da Vinci's first coded notebook? 275 00:18:52,990 --> 00:18:54,870 The mystery might be even bigger than that. 276 00:18:55,150 --> 00:18:59,050 I mean, was Leonardo da Vinci writing in code to hide some... 277 00:18:59,470 --> 00:19:04,770 great secrets of alchemy that he had discovered, or medical cures, is the 278 00:19:04,770 --> 00:19:08,810 of history's greatest genius even greater than we thought? 279 00:19:09,870 --> 00:19:12,590 Until it's deciphered, we just won't know. 280 00:19:17,410 --> 00:19:22,570 For over a hundred years, people have speculated on what the Voynich 281 00:19:22,570 --> 00:19:24,670 is and who created it. 282 00:19:25,380 --> 00:19:29,480 After successfully carbon dating the book parchment to the 15th century, 283 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:33,420 researchers seek other technology to help understand it. 284 00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:40,000 Dating the book is a huge breakthrough, but of course, that still can't help us 285 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:45,040 determine what it is. We know the approximate date of its creation, but 286 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:46,340 really about it. 287 00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:51,480 There's really only one way to fully understand this book, and that's to 288 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:52,480 the writing. 289 00:19:53,230 --> 00:19:57,250 to figure out what language this is, what cipher they use, and start to 290 00:19:57,250 --> 00:19:58,250 translate it. 291 00:19:58,950 --> 00:20:03,250 Unfortunately, it's a code no human has ever been able to crack. 292 00:20:03,870 --> 00:20:06,810 But could there be another way? 293 00:20:09,470 --> 00:20:15,170 In 2016, some computing scientists at the University of Alberta in Canada 294 00:20:15,170 --> 00:20:17,570 doing something incredible with the Voynich manuscript. 295 00:20:18,650 --> 00:20:24,240 They work with artificial intelligence, and they realize, hey, Maybe our AI 296 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:28,560 computer can finally decipher this text where others have failed. 297 00:20:29,060 --> 00:20:32,500 The project is led by Professor Greg Kondrak. 298 00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:36,840 Their exact field of study is called natural language processing. 299 00:20:37,180 --> 00:20:41,420 So it combines computer science and linguistics and artificial intelligence. 300 00:20:41,740 --> 00:20:47,340 And the goal is to improve interactions between computers and human language. 301 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:50,760 Basically, their ultimate goal... 302 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:56,060 is to create a computer that you could give any document in any language in the 303 00:20:56,060 --> 00:20:57,060 history of mankind. 304 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:01,440 And that computer would be able to recognize it and understand and analyze 305 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:06,380 With the right inputs, the computer might even be able to decipher a 306 00:21:06,380 --> 00:21:08,960 code in an unidentified language. 307 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:14,500 It is a challenge, but the computer is programmed to recognize any and all 308 00:21:14,500 --> 00:21:16,440 patterns and compare them with known languages. 309 00:21:17,110 --> 00:21:21,490 And it can do this thousands and thousands of times faster than a human 310 00:21:21,490 --> 00:21:23,650 it's worth a shot. 311 00:21:24,130 --> 00:21:28,570 Contract starts by entering samples of 400 different languages. 312 00:21:29,210 --> 00:21:33,670 The AI goes to work comparing the Voynich manuscript to other languages. 313 00:21:33,950 --> 00:21:36,790 It looks at individual characters. 314 00:21:37,110 --> 00:21:41,830 It looks at groups of words. It looks at how often they're repeated and in what 315 00:21:41,830 --> 00:21:45,430 combination. All the little nuances that could determine... 316 00:21:45,630 --> 00:21:47,190 what language this was written in. 317 00:21:47,430 --> 00:21:51,510 They honestly don't know if this is going to work because this computer is 318 00:21:51,510 --> 00:21:56,070 designed to read the Voynich Manuscript. However, they work on it for weeks and 319 00:21:56,070 --> 00:22:01,090 weeks, and after a while, lo and behold, the computer gives them an answer. 320 00:22:01,470 --> 00:22:05,970 According to the Artificial Intelligence at the University of Alberta in Canada, 321 00:22:06,090 --> 00:22:08,930 the Voynich Manuscript is in Hebrew. 322 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:15,820 There had been speculation for quite some time that the Voynich manuscript 323 00:22:15,820 --> 00:22:20,680 wasn't written in a European language because had it been written in Italian 324 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:25,280 Greek or Latin, somebody more than likely would have figured it out by now. 325 00:22:26,460 --> 00:22:31,080 And the researchers actually went into this thinking maybe the manuscript was 326 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:35,940 written in Arabic, but Hebrew presents an intriguing possibility. 327 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:41,420 Even if they've discovered the language of origin, the book may take years to 328 00:22:41,420 --> 00:22:42,420 translate. 329 00:22:42,700 --> 00:22:46,800 The team thinks that not only was it written in Hebrew, it was written as an 330 00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:50,980 alphagram. An alphagram is a way of coding language in which you present the 331 00:22:50,980 --> 00:22:53,200 letters of a word in alphabetical order. 332 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:58,300 So, for instance, the alphagram of the word cat would be A -C -T. 333 00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:04,160 The problem, of course, is that A -C -T also is the alphagram for the word act. 334 00:23:04,870 --> 00:23:06,930 So you can see the challenges here. 335 00:23:07,470 --> 00:23:11,290 Compounding those challenges is the fact that Hebrew isn't typically written 336 00:23:11,290 --> 00:23:12,149 with vowels. 337 00:23:12,150 --> 00:23:16,250 So researchers are left with the painstaking task of going word by word, 338 00:23:16,350 --> 00:23:20,310 swapping in the Hebrew letters, and then rearranging those letters for it to 339 00:23:20,310 --> 00:23:21,310 make some sort of sense. 340 00:23:21,670 --> 00:23:23,570 Slowly, the team makes progress. 341 00:23:24,250 --> 00:23:27,470 Once you think you've figured out a word, you move on to the next word. 342 00:23:27,890 --> 00:23:31,710 But if those two words don't make sense together, then you have to go back to 343 00:23:31,710 --> 00:23:33,510 the first word and try again. 344 00:23:34,030 --> 00:23:37,010 So far, they think they've come up with three grammatical phrases. 345 00:23:38,930 --> 00:23:45,750 She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house, and me and people. 346 00:23:46,910 --> 00:23:53,130 Unfortunately, this AI was never designed to bend its existence studying 347 00:23:53,130 --> 00:23:54,610 mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript. 348 00:23:54,890 --> 00:23:58,970 So the University of Alberta team only brings its research so far. 349 00:23:59,330 --> 00:24:02,870 All they know is they think the book was written in Hebrew. 350 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:04,700 But we still don't know what it says. 351 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:11,020 Then in 2017, another researcher picks up where the Canadians left off. 352 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:16,840 There's a German Egyptologist named Rainer Hannig, and he also thinks the 353 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:17,699 is in Hebrew. 354 00:24:17,700 --> 00:24:22,400 And he spent three years studying it, and he makes some progress in 355 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:25,200 it. And he publishes his findings in 2020. 356 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:30,060 Hannig manages to translate a number of paragraphs on multiple pages. 357 00:24:30,810 --> 00:24:35,530 And according to his finding, it looks like the Voynich Manuscript might be a 358 00:24:35,530 --> 00:24:36,530 book of prophecy. 359 00:24:37,850 --> 00:24:44,610 On one particular page, according to 360 00:24:44,610 --> 00:24:50,830 Hannig, it says, Drink carefully an elixir that delivers the mind. The 361 00:24:50,830 --> 00:24:55,950 allows you to speak prophecy and counteract false prophets. But do not 362 00:24:55,950 --> 00:24:59,590 about the elixir. Is the Voynich Manuscript. 363 00:25:00,010 --> 00:25:05,010 A Hebrew manual for predicting the future? For quite a while now, there 364 00:25:05,010 --> 00:25:08,110 been two separate schools of thought about the Voynich manuscript. 365 00:25:08,770 --> 00:25:13,990 The first one, which is also the most popular, is what if it's an encoded 366 00:25:13,990 --> 00:25:15,870 version of a known language? 367 00:25:16,610 --> 00:25:20,950 There are a growing number of people who think that could be entirely wrong. 368 00:25:23,430 --> 00:25:28,270 For many decades, countless codebreakers and scholars have tried and failed. 369 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:31,860 to decipher the mysterious Voynich Manuscript. 370 00:25:32,500 --> 00:25:35,780 Then in 2009, researchers pose a radical new question. 371 00:25:36,500 --> 00:25:39,040 What if the book isn't written in code at all? 372 00:25:40,780 --> 00:25:46,740 Since at least the 1500s, people have assumed the Voynich Manuscript is 373 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:50,340 But recently, a new question has been introduced. 374 00:25:52,340 --> 00:25:57,140 What if the reason no one's been able to crack the code is because it isn't a 375 00:25:57,140 --> 00:25:58,140 code at all? 376 00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:03,600 What if it's an actual language, but a language that's not human? 377 00:26:04,180 --> 00:26:09,020 Think about what it takes to create a code, especially one so complex that it 378 00:26:09,020 --> 00:26:11,040 defies translation for centuries. 379 00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:14,700 First, you have to think about what you want to write, and then you have to 380 00:26:14,700 --> 00:26:19,120 convert it into code, letter by letter, word by word. 381 00:26:19,620 --> 00:26:25,760 If you look at the case of another famous code, the Zodiac Killer, look at 382 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:26,940 the symbols are arranged. 383 00:26:27,740 --> 00:26:32,300 spaced out and separate from each other. Because Zodiac had to stop and think 384 00:26:32,300 --> 00:26:36,100 every step of the way, each letter sits on its own. 385 00:26:36,300 --> 00:26:40,540 But in the Voynich manuscript, it really looks like the author was writing 386 00:26:40,540 --> 00:26:45,420 continuously. The writing is tightly formed. It flows evenly from letter to 387 00:26:45,420 --> 00:26:48,740 letter. It's a swift and continuous movement of the pen. 388 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,020 They didn't have to stop and think about anything. 389 00:26:51,740 --> 00:26:53,040 So some say... 390 00:26:53,310 --> 00:26:57,250 Even the most ingenious human couldn't have pulled this off while coming up 391 00:26:57,250 --> 00:26:58,730 an unsolvable code. 392 00:26:59,610 --> 00:27:05,590 If someone is writing in this continuous style, it's obviously a language they 393 00:27:05,590 --> 00:27:10,690 understood. And that has some theorists thinking, what if that language is 394 00:27:10,690 --> 00:27:11,690 extraterrestrial? 395 00:27:16,510 --> 00:27:19,290 Did an alien create the Voynich manuscript? 396 00:27:20,010 --> 00:27:22,330 There are some exciting precedents for this. 397 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:28,920 Eric Von Daniken, well known for his book Chariots of the God, puts this 398 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:30,740 forward in his book in 1968. 399 00:27:31,260 --> 00:27:36,980 And in that book, Von Daniken asserts that many of our ancient technologies 400 00:27:36,980 --> 00:27:42,540 created by aliens, such as Stonehenge, Punta Pucu, all of these other places, 401 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:47,060 Easter Island, that we did not have the technology to create, so it needed alien 402 00:27:47,060 --> 00:27:48,060 assistance. 403 00:27:48,260 --> 00:27:51,660 He also cites a bunch of literary examples. 404 00:27:52,650 --> 00:27:57,610 There's an early world map known as the Piri Reis map, and von Däniken describes 405 00:27:57,610 --> 00:28:02,870 it as showing the Earth as it would be seen from space, which, of course, is an 406 00:28:02,870 --> 00:28:06,890 impossible viewpoint in 1513 when the map was made. 407 00:28:07,270 --> 00:28:12,070 When von Däniken applies the same logic to the Voynich manuscript, he believes 408 00:28:12,070 --> 00:28:15,270 he's finally unlocked its mysterious origins. 409 00:28:15,850 --> 00:28:22,830 In his 2009 book, History is Wrong, von Däniken goes into great detail about 410 00:28:22,830 --> 00:28:25,390 his theory about the Voynich manuscript. 411 00:28:25,830 --> 00:28:31,830 He believes that it was written by an alien astronaut who was stranded on 412 00:28:31,830 --> 00:28:37,890 in the 1400s and spent the rest of his life on planet Earth recording his 413 00:28:37,890 --> 00:28:40,790 observations in the Voynich manuscript. 414 00:28:41,330 --> 00:28:45,750 Even though we don't understand the written language, the illustrations seem 415 00:28:45,750 --> 00:28:46,810 indicate that there was a... 416 00:28:47,180 --> 00:28:50,860 A crude understanding perhaps riddled with inaccuracies. 417 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:57,580 Could it be that this alien astronaut, in cataloging these things, was writing 418 00:28:57,580 --> 00:29:00,980 about things, drawing pictures of things he didn't know anything about? Are we 419 00:29:00,980 --> 00:29:05,120 being observed and studied by somebody else out there? 420 00:29:07,260 --> 00:29:10,640 The alien theory is obviously pretty out there. 421 00:29:10,940 --> 00:29:15,160 But the concept that the book is written in its own language instead of a code. 422 00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:16,960 That definitely could be possible. 423 00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:21,000 And in fact, there's another really well -documented phenomenon that this could 424 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:26,120 be. In 2004, the British researchers Jerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill 425 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:27,480 book on the Voynich Manuscript. 426 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,000 The theory they put forth is that the Voynich Manuscript is written in 427 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:37,120 glossolalia, which is the speaking of tongues or the language of tongues, in 428 00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:38,860 this case, the writing in tongues. 429 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,120 There are thousands of examples of this. 430 00:29:42,460 --> 00:29:47,380 cataloged from antiquity to the present. And it typically presents the same way. 431 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:53,520 A person generates unintelligible words that appear to be a language but can't 432 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:54,379 be understood. 433 00:29:54,380 --> 00:29:58,280 And in many cases, this is thought to happen while the person is possessed. 434 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:01,420 Could that be what's happening in Buenas? 435 00:30:07,370 --> 00:30:12,270 Kennedy and Churchill are the first to notice a potential parallel between the 436 00:30:12,270 --> 00:30:17,410 Voynich manuscript and the work of the 12th century German saint Hildegard von 437 00:30:17,410 --> 00:30:23,950 Binyon. She wrote hundreds of pages in a language known as lingua ignota, or the 438 00:30:23,950 --> 00:30:24,950 unknown language. 439 00:30:24,990 --> 00:30:28,810 She had her own script. She had her own vocabulary. 440 00:30:29,090 --> 00:30:34,790 Both manuscripts contain perplexing illustrations, so you can see why the 441 00:30:34,790 --> 00:30:36,230 comparison suggests itself. 442 00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:41,880 Hildegard claims she was recording visions that she was receiving, thought 443 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:42,880 from the divine. 444 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:47,480 Kennedy and Churchill suggest the same phenomenon could have afflicted the 445 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:52,340 Voynich author, causing what is known as automatic or possessed writing. 446 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:58,540 Historically, Judeo -Christianity expresses possession as being a real 447 00:30:58,660 --> 00:31:01,080 from demonic to angelic possession. 448 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,920 Jesus has many examples of him driving out demons. 449 00:31:05,420 --> 00:31:09,860 For many years, the Catholic Church tried to downplay possession, but now, 450 00:31:09,860 --> 00:31:15,080 current times especially, they admit that it exists, that it is out there, 451 00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:20,120 there are dozens, if not hundreds, of exorcisms performed every month. 452 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:26,380 Of course, there will probably never be any way to prove this theory, but it 453 00:31:26,380 --> 00:31:30,120 just goes to show how the Voynich Manuscript has captured everybody's 454 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:33,100 imagination. The possibilities are literally endless. 455 00:31:33,630 --> 00:31:37,290 If it turns out the book wasn't written in code, it wasn't written by an alien, 456 00:31:37,450 --> 00:31:41,610 it wasn't written by an angel, a demon, it wasn't written by someone suffering 457 00:31:41,610 --> 00:31:45,390 from mental illness, we may never be able to find out what it says. 458 00:31:45,710 --> 00:31:48,130 Maybe this mystery is truly unsolvable. 459 00:31:52,650 --> 00:31:58,850 One of history's most infamous books is a manuscript that no one can understand. 460 00:31:59,630 --> 00:32:02,090 But that hasn't stopped people from trying. 461 00:32:02,830 --> 00:32:09,110 After all this time, no one can read it, no one can understand it. We all want 462 00:32:09,110 --> 00:32:12,330 to believe that the manuscript has meaning. 463 00:32:13,250 --> 00:32:19,450 Someone spent a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of resources writing 464 00:32:19,490 --> 00:32:23,730 drawing on it. The Voynich manuscript must have a purpose. 465 00:32:23,990 --> 00:32:25,110 How could it not? 466 00:32:25,370 --> 00:32:31,180 And that's why so many people have dedicated their lives trying to solve 467 00:32:31,180 --> 00:32:34,980 -called Voynich Code, because they sincerely and firmly believe that this 468 00:32:34,980 --> 00:32:39,200 has something monumental to share. There's got to be some sort of amazing 469 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:40,240 it wants to let us know. 470 00:32:40,620 --> 00:32:44,160 But what if the answer is something much more surprising? 471 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:50,120 As researchers have hit dead end after dead end after dead end, trying to find 472 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:55,200 patterns, substitutions, translations, languages of origin, there's this one 473 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:56,540 burning question. 474 00:32:57,150 --> 00:33:00,490 That's just sitting in the back of their minds. No one wants to admit it out 475 00:33:00,490 --> 00:33:04,670 loud. But what if they're just wasting their time? 476 00:33:06,150 --> 00:33:11,190 In April 2007, Austrian researcher Andres Schinner completes his own 477 00:33:11,190 --> 00:33:12,830 analysis of the Voynich manuscript. 478 00:33:13,590 --> 00:33:16,950 Like everyone else, he's been looking for patterns that might crack the code. 479 00:33:17,150 --> 00:33:21,410 But instead, his findings show that the statistical properties of the text are 480 00:33:21,410 --> 00:33:24,390 most consistent with meaningless gibberish. 481 00:33:26,540 --> 00:33:31,900 If Schindler is correct, then a lot of people have spent a lot of time on a 482 00:33:31,900 --> 00:33:32,900 goose chase. 483 00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:40,460 In some ways, a hoax might be the easiest explanation. 484 00:33:41,380 --> 00:33:43,740 But if so, I mean, wow. 485 00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:45,360 What a hoax. 486 00:33:46,380 --> 00:33:50,660 Still, hoax or not, we're still trying to find proof of what this book is, not 487 00:33:50,660 --> 00:33:51,700 just more speculation. 488 00:33:52,100 --> 00:33:55,700 So, is there any way to prove that this book... 489 00:33:56,060 --> 00:33:57,220 Could have been faked. 490 00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:03,340 The material, the parchment on which the manuscript has been written, is carbon 491 00:34:03,340 --> 00:34:05,280 dated to the early 15th century. 492 00:34:05,500 --> 00:34:06,700 You can't fake that. 493 00:34:06,900 --> 00:34:09,120 The parchment is 600 years old. 494 00:34:09,580 --> 00:34:12,860 Somebody in the early 15th century created the manuscript. 495 00:34:13,199 --> 00:34:14,540 Just gibberish. 496 00:34:15,420 --> 00:34:19,020 It would be extremely difficult to identify who that was. 497 00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:23,360 But there is one person with a possible motive. 498 00:34:23,620 --> 00:34:25,219 We're talking about none other. 499 00:34:25,710 --> 00:34:27,909 than Wilfred Voynich himself. 500 00:34:31,050 --> 00:34:35,370 For starters, Voynich has a financial motive. Think about this. Remember, he 501 00:34:35,370 --> 00:34:39,409 going around the world trying to convince everybody that he found a long 502 00:34:39,409 --> 00:34:44,170 encoded alchemy guide written by Roger Bacon, which, of course, he wants to 503 00:34:44,170 --> 00:34:45,469 for quite a lot of money. 504 00:34:46,150 --> 00:34:51,190 Supporters of the hoax theory also cite the book's complete lack of provenance. 505 00:34:51,510 --> 00:34:54,790 People begin to realize, wait, here's... 506 00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:59,380 actually no written evidence that proves the existence of the Voynich manuscript 507 00:34:59,380 --> 00:35:01,700 before Wilfred Voynich. 508 00:35:03,140 --> 00:35:07,420 Remember, Voynich offers proof in the form of a 17th century letter that he 509 00:35:07,420 --> 00:35:12,620 found. But if you actually read the letter, all it really says is that 510 00:35:12,620 --> 00:35:17,560 mysterious book that we can't seem to figure out and that it was written by 511 00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:18,560 Roger Bacon. 512 00:35:20,740 --> 00:35:24,440 It doesn't mention any details specific to the Voynich manuscript. 513 00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,200 There's no proof that they're even talking about the same book. 514 00:35:28,700 --> 00:35:34,020 In fact, some say maybe Voynich found the letter, and then he made the book so 515 00:35:34,020 --> 00:35:37,640 that he could claim it was the lost bacon manuscript they're referring to. 516 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:42,380 Additionally, Voynich's story seems to change over the years. 517 00:35:42,780 --> 00:35:46,300 In 1912, he says he got it in a castle in southern Europe. 518 00:35:46,620 --> 00:35:51,660 In 1915, he says that the castle was in Austria. When Voynich's wife, Ethel, 519 00:35:51,660 --> 00:35:57,260 dies in 1960, the letters discovered, only to be opened posthumously that says 520 00:35:57,260 --> 00:36:01,080 that he actually found the manuscript in the Jesuit order in Frascati, Italy. 521 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:09,060 It all adds up to suspicious behavior. And one has to ask, is Wilfred Voynich 522 00:36:09,060 --> 00:36:15,900 just this celebrated and respected antiquities dealer? Or has he pulled 523 00:36:15,900 --> 00:36:20,120 off one of the single greatest hoaxes in history? 524 00:36:24,110 --> 00:36:29,930 Is it possible that the centuries -old mystery of the Voynich manuscript is a 525 00:36:29,930 --> 00:36:30,928 hoax? 526 00:36:30,930 --> 00:36:35,530 If it's a fake, it's an incredible fake. For starters, it uses materials from 527 00:36:35,530 --> 00:36:36,530 the 1400s. 528 00:36:36,710 --> 00:36:40,870 It's got all of these writings and drawings and charts and diagrams. It has 529 00:36:40,870 --> 00:36:43,770 different -sized pages that fold out in every which way. 530 00:36:44,170 --> 00:36:49,450 It would take a genius -level expert in antique books to pull this off. 531 00:36:50,110 --> 00:36:54,810 And some think that genius is none other... than Wilfred Voynich himself. 532 00:36:55,330 --> 00:36:59,110 To some, it's not a question of how could it be Voynich. 533 00:36:59,450 --> 00:37:02,890 It's more a question of how could it not be Voynich. 534 00:37:03,310 --> 00:37:10,230 At some point between 1908 and 1911, Voynich finds a letter by Jan Marek 535 00:37:10,230 --> 00:37:13,210 that talks about an encoded Roger Bacon manuscript. 536 00:37:13,870 --> 00:37:17,850 Then, perhaps, he sets about forging a fake one. 537 00:37:19,500 --> 00:37:22,500 The problem with this hoax theory, and it's the one that a lot of people cite, 538 00:37:22,620 --> 00:37:28,780 is that it's nearly impossible for anyone in the modern day to have access 539 00:37:28,780 --> 00:37:32,940 lot of these ancient parchments and inks and other materials to create such a 540 00:37:32,940 --> 00:37:35,860 thing. But is it possible Voynich did? 541 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,820 Shortly before the appearance of the manuscript, Voynich purchases the entire 542 00:37:41,820 --> 00:37:45,500 collection of the Libreria Francescini in Italy. 543 00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:50,420 It's a private collection that consists of over half a million books, pamphlets, 544 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:52,300 maps, and other manuscripts. 545 00:37:52,540 --> 00:37:58,280 And we can't say for sure, but it is likely that among that treasure trove of 546 00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:04,760 materials that he purchased was a large amount of blank 15th century parchment. 547 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:12,120 In any ancient library, you're going to find blank parchment, whether it's... 548 00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:17,420 sewn into a complete book or some kind of a blank notebook, or empty parchment 549 00:38:17,420 --> 00:38:19,400 that just happens to be sitting around. 550 00:38:19,700 --> 00:38:24,400 Many books and manuscripts have blank pages at the beginning or at the end, 551 00:38:24,460 --> 00:38:28,320 another place where you can find ancient blank parchment. 552 00:38:28,980 --> 00:38:33,840 This would have been a jackpot for Voynich, and from that moment on, he 553 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:35,760 had everything he needed to pull this off. 554 00:38:35,980 --> 00:38:37,520 What about the ink? 555 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:44,780 In addition to being a Polish revolutionary, a Siberian prison 556 00:38:44,780 --> 00:38:48,760 of the world's premier rare book dealers, Voynich also has a training in 557 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:53,000 chemistry from when he was a student at the University of Moscow. In his 558 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:57,840 restoration work on his own collection, he sometimes uses that work to create 559 00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:01,260 inks and pigments to restore books and manuscripts. 560 00:39:03,050 --> 00:39:06,590 He may have also had some help, because it turns out he had a covert friendship 561 00:39:06,590 --> 00:39:10,950 with a famous British secret agent by the name of Sidney Riley, who's also 562 00:39:10,950 --> 00:39:12,750 as the Ace of Spies. 563 00:39:13,130 --> 00:39:17,910 Riley allegedly goes into the British Museum Library and takes out a book 564 00:39:17,910 --> 00:39:20,810 called Some Observations on Ancient Inks. 565 00:39:21,210 --> 00:39:26,750 So according to this theory, Voynich finds the letter, buys the parchment, 566 00:39:27,030 --> 00:39:31,070 creates the ink and the pigment, forges the book. 567 00:39:31,790 --> 00:39:32,790 There you have it. 568 00:39:33,390 --> 00:39:38,510 If the manuscript is a forgery, it didn't turn out the way Voynich hoped. 569 00:39:38,750 --> 00:39:43,310 The crazy thing is, if Voynich was trying to create a Roger Bacon 570 00:39:43,310 --> 00:39:45,110 sell, he failed. 571 00:39:46,090 --> 00:39:47,990 Voynich was never able to sell the book. 572 00:39:48,310 --> 00:39:51,790 The problem is, he created too good of a puzzle. 573 00:39:52,230 --> 00:39:57,230 Everyone got so wrapped up in the story, in cracking the code and deciphering 574 00:39:57,230 --> 00:40:02,970 it, that they started finding patterns that... Voynich never intended clues 575 00:40:02,970 --> 00:40:03,970 weren't there. 576 00:40:04,190 --> 00:40:06,030 People didn't want to buy the thing. 577 00:40:06,530 --> 00:40:07,930 They wanted to solve it. 578 00:40:08,610 --> 00:40:13,790 But Wilford Voynich did successfully sell at least one forgery that we know 579 00:40:13,810 --> 00:40:17,370 It's called the Columbus Miniature. It's a painting of Columbus landing in the 580 00:40:17,370 --> 00:40:21,670 New World, which was made by an anonymous Spanish forger in the 1800s, 581 00:40:21,670 --> 00:40:22,850 sold it to the British Museum. 582 00:40:23,070 --> 00:40:26,990 Whether he did this knowingly, we're not entirely sure, but at least there is 583 00:40:26,990 --> 00:40:28,930 some precedent for Voynich selling a fake. 584 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:33,400 Despite this evidence, most scholars still believe the Voynich manuscript is 585 00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:35,020 genuine 15th century article. 586 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:40,340 The book has been tested and retested. It's been studied using some of the most 587 00:40:40,340 --> 00:40:44,360 advanced scientific techniques, none of which even existed when Voynich was 588 00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:45,339 alive. 589 00:40:45,340 --> 00:40:49,340 So could he have made a forgery that good in the 1910s? 590 00:40:50,540 --> 00:40:52,500 Maybe. But is it likely? 591 00:40:53,540 --> 00:40:54,540 Probably not. 592 00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:57,500 Besides, where's the fun in that? 593 00:40:57,740 --> 00:40:58,800 Where's the mystery? 594 00:40:59,260 --> 00:41:02,600 Where's the history? We're not all clamoring over this book and studying it 595 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,060 piece by piece because we want it to be a fake. 596 00:41:05,460 --> 00:41:10,520 We want it to be a revelation, the greatest code of all time, which, when 597 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:15,820 unlocked, will reveal the greatest secrets of the universe. 598 00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:26,060 In 2016, Yale University's Beinecke Library scanned all 234 pages 599 00:41:26,060 --> 00:41:27,860 of the Voynich Manuscript. 600 00:41:28,540 --> 00:41:34,000 making it easily available to anyone who wants to take a crack at solving the 601 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:35,600 600 -year -old puzzle. 602 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:42,120 I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for watching History's Greatest Mysteries.