0:00:06.679,0:00:10.689 Deep inside Yale University's Beinecke[br]Rare Book and Manuscript Library 0:00:10.689,0:00:14.899 lies the only copy of a 240-page tome. 0:00:14.899,0:00:17.523 Recently carbon dated to around 1420, 0:00:17.523,0:00:19.984 its vellum pages features [br]looping handwriting 0:00:19.984,0:00:23.979 and hand-drawn images seemingly[br]stolen from a dream. 0:00:23.979,0:00:25.733 Real and imaginary plants, 0:00:25.733,0:00:27.350 floating castles, 0:00:27.350,0:00:28.762 bathing women, 0:00:28.762,0:00:30.263 astrology diagrams, 0:00:30.263,0:00:31.499 zodiac rings, 0:00:31.499,0:00:37.010 and suns and moons with faces[br]accompany the text. 0:00:37.010,0:00:41.540 This 24x16 centimeter book[br]is called the Voynich manuscript, 0:00:41.540,0:00:44.649 and its one of history's biggest[br]unsolved mysteries. 0:00:44.649,0:00:45.890 The reason why? 0:00:45.890,0:00:49.261 No one can figure out what it says. 0:00:49.261,0:00:51.190 The name comes from Wilfrid Voynich, 0:00:51.190,0:00:54.660 a Polish bookseller who came across[br]the document at a Jesuit college 0:00:54.660,0:00:56.769 in Italy in 1912. 0:00:56.769,0:00:57.941 He was puzzled. 0:00:57.941,0:00:59.011 Who wrote it? 0:00:59.011,0:01:00.431 Where was it made? 0:01:00.431,0:01:04.120 What do these bizarre words[br]and vibrant drawings represent? 0:01:04.120,0:01:06.691 What secrets do its pages contain? 0:01:06.691,0:01:09.671 He purchased the manuscript from[br]the cash-strapped priest at the college, 0:01:09.671,0:01:11.572 and eventually brought it to the U.S., 0:01:11.572,0:01:16.191 where experts have continued to puzzle[br]over it for more than a century. 0:01:16.191,0:01:20.081 Cryptologists say the writing has all[br]the characteristics of a real language, 0:01:20.081,0:01:22.651 just one that no one's ever seen before. 0:01:22.651,0:01:25.391 What makes it seem real is that[br]in actual languages, 0:01:25.391,0:01:29.391 letters and groups of letters appear[br]with consistent frequencies, 0:01:29.391,0:01:31.511 and the language in the Voynich manuscript 0:01:31.511,0:01:35.342 has patterns you wouldn't find[br]from a random letter generator. 0:01:35.342,0:01:38.712 Other than that, we know little more[br]than what we can see. 0:01:38.712,0:01:41.244 The letters are varied [br]in style and height. 0:01:41.244,0:01:44.943 Some are borrowed from other scripts,[br]but many are unique. 0:01:44.943,0:01:48.262 The taller letters have been named[br]gallows characters. 0:01:48.262,0:01:50.482 The manuscript is [br]highly decorated throughout 0:01:50.482,0:01:52.592 with scroll-like embellishments. 0:01:52.592,0:01:55.213 It appears to be written by two[br]or more hands, 0:01:55.213,0:01:58.273 with the painting done [br]by yet another party. 0:01:58.273,0:02:03.693 Over the years, three main theories[br]about the manuscript's text have emerged. 0:02:03.693,0:02:06.042 The first is that it's written in cypher, 0:02:06.042,0:02:10.263 a secret code deliberately designed[br]to hide secret meaning. 0:02:10.263,0:02:12.575 The second is that the document is a hoax 0:02:12.575,0:02:16.213 written in gibberish to make money[br]off a gullible buyer. 0:02:16.213,0:02:19.133 Some speculate the author[br]was a medieval con man. 0:02:19.133,0:02:22.793 Others, that it was Voynich himself. 0:02:22.793,0:02:26.523 The third theory is that the manuscript[br]is written in an actual language, 0:02:26.523,0:02:28.695 but in an unknown script. 0:02:28.695,0:02:31.674 Perhaps medieval scholars were attempting[br]to create an alphabet 0:02:31.674,0:02:35.123 for a language that was spoken[br]but not yet written. 0:02:35.123,0:02:38.844 In that case, the Voynich manuscript[br]might be like the rongorongo script 0:02:38.844,0:02:40.684 invented on Easter Island, 0:02:40.684,0:02:45.005 now unreadable after the culture[br]that made it collapsed. 0:02:45.005,0:02:47.364 Though no one can read [br]the Voynich manuscript, 0:02:47.364,0:02:50.145 that hasn't stopped people from guessing[br]what it might say. 0:02:50.145,0:02:52.873 Those who believe the manuscript[br]was an attempt to create 0:02:52.873,0:02:54.736 a new form of written language 0:02:54.736,0:02:56.995 speculate that it might be an encyclopedia 0:02:56.995,0:03:00.285 containing the knowledge [br]of the culture that produced it. 0:03:00.285,0:03:04.406 Others believe it was written by [br]the 13th century philosopher Roger Bacon, 0:03:04.406,0:03:08.127 who attempted to understand [br]the universal laws of grammar, 0:03:08.127,0:03:12.496 or in the 16th century by the[br]Elizabethan mystic John Dee, 0:03:12.496,0:03:15.257 who practiced alchemy and divination. 0:03:15.257,0:03:19.073 More fringe theories that the book was[br]written by a coven of Italian witches, 0:03:19.073,0:03:22.296 or even by Martians. 0:03:22.296,0:03:24.116 After 100 years of frustration, 0:03:24.116,0:03:27.576 scientists have recently shed a little[br]light on the mystery. 0:03:27.576,0:03:30.193 The first breakthrough [br]was the carbon dating. 0:03:30.193,0:03:33.666 Also, contemporary historians have[br]traced the provenance of the manuscript 0:03:33.666,0:03:37.546 back through Rome and Prague[br]to as early as 1612, 0:03:37.546,0:03:41.287 when it was perhaps passed[br]from Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II 0:03:41.287,0:03:44.477 to his physician, Jacobus Sinapius. 0:03:44.477,0:03:46.801 In addition to these [br]historical breakthroughs, 0:03:46.801,0:03:50.527 linguistic researchers recently proposed[br]the provisional identification 0:03:50.527,0:03:53.698 of a few of the manuscript's words. 0:03:53.698,0:03:56.938 Could the letters beside these seven[br]stars spell Tauran, 0:03:56.938,0:03:58.523 a name for Taurus, 0:03:58.523,0:04:02.437 a constellation that includes the seven[br]stars called the Pleiades? 0:04:02.437,0:04:06.807 Could this word be Centaurun[br]for the Centaurea plant in the picture? 0:04:06.807,0:04:09.698 Perhaps, but progress is slow. 0:04:09.698,0:04:12.527 If we can crack its code,[br]what might we find? 0:04:12.527,0:04:14.959 The dream journal of [br]a 15th-century illustrator? 0:04:14.959,0:04:16.692 A bunch of nonsense? 0:04:16.692,0:04:19.488 Or the lost knowledge [br]of a forgotten culture? 0:04:19.488,0:04:21.477 What do you think it is?