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The Voynich Manuscript is a 15th century parchment book written in an unknown, undeciphered script. Often considered one of the world's most mysterious manuscripts, it contains six sections: Herbal, Astronomical, Biological, Cosmological, Pharmaceutical, and Recipies.
History
The origins of this manuscript are unknown, but it has been carbon dated to have been made sometime between 1404 and 1438. Any history between 1404 and 1576 is missing and unknown
In 1599, Karl Widemann sold Rudolph II of Habsburg, otherwise known as a Holy Roman Emperor, several books. It is unknown whether the Voynich Manuscript was one of them, but it was in Rudolph II's possession during his reign in Prague from 1576 to 1611.
Jacobus Horcicky de Tepenecz owned the manuscript in 1622. This is noted in an inscription on folio 1r which reads Jacobi de Tepenecz under uv light. The manuscript was likely owned by someone else and given to him as a part of his inheritance.
It was also owned by Georgius Barschius potentially sometime between 1627 and 1637. Then it went to Johannes Marcus Marci of Kronland, as he was gifted Barschius' alchemical library in 1677.
Wilfrid M. Voynich acquired the manuscript in 1912 at the Villa Mondragone in Italy. It then went to H. P. Kraus, who acquired it from Ethel Voynich, Wilfrid Voynich's widow. H. P. Kraus then gifted the manuscript to the Beinecke Library at Yale University, where it sits toady.
What I'm Doing
In my research, I am choosing to focus on the herbal section of the manuscript, and help to organize the potential identifications of each plant using TEI.
Prior to this project, there was no TEI version of the manuscript due to its complicated nature. However, there was a transliteration file written by René Zandbergen that accurately shows the text of the manuscript. The file is written in the IVTFF format, which stands for Intermediate Voynich MS Transliteration File Format.
Due to its structured format, I was able to make it into a TEI file, which you can read about my process in my Methods page. If you would like to do this yourself, go to my Instructions page!