Secret Code, Lost Language, Nonsense, or Hoax: The Voynich Manuscript’s Enduring Mysteries
Lecture by Lisa Fagin Davis
Given at Wellesley College on October 18, 2023
Abstract: The Voynich Manuscript (Beinecke Library MS 408) has been called The World’s Most Mysterious Manuscript, and for good reason. Written entirely in an otherwise-unattested set of symbols and illustrated with unidentifiable plants, uninterpretable astrological diagrams, and astonishing biological drawings, the Voynich Manuscript (named for bookdealer Wilfrid Voynich) has intrigued, mystified, and frustrated linguists and cryptologists worldwide for centuries. Is it a code? A lost language? Does it have meaning at all? Or is it a hoax perpetrated on the world by a fifteenth-century prankster or modern forger? What do we know, and what do we have yet to learn?
In this lecture, Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis, one of the foremost experts on the manuscript, will describe the manuscript’s history, walk through its contents, and explain current theories and research methodologies.
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Lisa Fagin Davis received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University in 1993 and has catalogued medieval manuscript collections at Wellesley, Tufts, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, the Walters Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Boston Public Library, and several private collections. She has served as Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America since 2013. Follow Lisa on Twitter or Bluesky.
Secret Code, Lost Language, Nonsense, or Hoax: The Voynich Manuscript’s Enduring Mysteries
Lecture by Lisa Fagin Davis
Given at Wellesley College on October 18, 2023
Abstract: The Voynich Manuscript (Beinecke Library MS 408) has been called The World’s Most Mysterious Manuscript, and for good reason. Written entirely in an otherwise-unattested set of symbols and illustrated with unidentifiable plants, uninterpretable astrological diagrams, and astonishing biological drawings, the Voynich Manuscript (named for bookdealer Wilfrid Voynich) has intrigued, mystified, and frustrated linguists and cryptologists worldwide for centuries. Is it a code? A lost language? Does it have meaning at all? Or is it a hoax perpetrated on the world by a fifteenth-century prankster or modern forger? What do we know, and what do we have yet to learn?
In this lecture, Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis, one of the foremost experts on the manuscript, will describe the manuscript’s history, walk through its contents, and explain current theories and research methodologies.
Lisa Fagin Davis received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University in 1993 and has catalogued medieval manuscript collections at Wellesley, Tufts, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, the Walters Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Boston Public Library, and several private collections. She has served as Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America since 2013. Follow Lisa on Twitter or Bluesky.
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