Origin and Provenance of the Voynich Codex

Tucker, Arthur O.; Janick, Jules

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77294-3_1

Arthur O. Tucker³ &
Jules Janick⁴

Part of the book series: Fascinating Life Sciences ((FLS))

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1 Citations

The original version of this chapter was revised. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77294-3_17

Abstract

The bizarre Voynich Codex, discovered in 1912 in Italy by the Polish book dealer Wilfrid Voynich (1865–1930), consists of illustrations and text in a symbolic language. Although encyclopedic in scope, the work is largely an herbal, with approximately 359 images of plants. The text has eluded decipherment, despite repeated attempts by world-renowned cryptologists. The origin of the work remains obscure, but the provenance has been traced to the court of Rudolf II (1552–1612). It has generally been considered to be an early fifteenth century European work based on the carbon dating of the vellum; however, identification of New World plants by Hugh O’Neill and animals infers a sixteenth century Mexican origin, i.e., a palimpsest. The literature of the Voynich Codex is extensive, with a huge web presence and controversy regarding its origin, language, decipherment, and meaning.

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Department of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Delaware State University, Dover, DE, USA
Arthur O. Tucker
Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
Jules Janick

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Tucker, A.O., Janick, J. (2018). Origin and Provenance of the Voynich Codex. In: Unraveling the Voynich Codex. Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77294-3_1

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