Projects:2015s1-31 Cracking the Voynich manuscript code
Contents
Introduction
Team
Supervisors
Honours Students
Project Information
Background
The Voynich Manuscript is a document written in an unknown script that has been carbon dated back to the early 15th century [1] and believed to be created within Europe [2]. Named after Wilfrid Voynich, whom purchased the folio in 1912, the manuscript has become a well-known mystery within linguistics and cryptology. It is divided into several different section based on the nature of the drawings [3]. These sections are:
- Herbal
- Astronomical
- Biological
- Cosmological
- Pharmaceutical
- Recipes
The folio numbers and examples of each section are outlined in appendix section A.2. In general, the Voynich Manuscript has fallen into three particular hypotheses [4]. These are as follows:
- Cipher Text: The text is encrypted.
- Plain Text: The text is in a plain, natural language that is currently unidentified.
- Hoax: The text has no meaningful information.
Note that the manuscript may fall into more than one of these hypotheses [4]. It may be that the manuscript is written through steganography, the concealing of the true meaning within the possibly meaningless text.
Technical Background
Aim
Motivation
Significance
Approach
Deliverables
Future Pathways
Resources
- Standard University Computers
- MATLAB Computing Environment
- C++ Programming Language
- BASH Scripts
- Electronic Voynich Transcriptions
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights in various languages
- Various electronic English texts
