The Voynich Manuscript

U.S.A.: Yale University Press / Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 2016 Pictorial boards. Richly illustrated with gorgeously produced full-clour facsimiles. Absolutely NEW book housed in a fine glassine dustjacket. Unpaginated. Fold on first flap. "Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the Voynich Manuscript, the worlds most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. The manuscript appears and disappears throughout history, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to a secret sale of books in 1903 by the Society of Jesus in Rome. The books language has eluded decipherment, and its elaborate illustrations remain as baffling as they are beautiful. For the first time, this facsimile, complete with elaborate folding sections, allows readers to explore this enigma in all its stunning detail, from its one-of-a-kind Voynichese text to its illustrations of otherworldly plants, unfamiliar constellations, and naked women swimming though fantastical tubes and green baths. The essays that accompany the manuscript explain what we have learned about this workfrom alchemical, cryptographic, forensic, and historical perspectivesbut they provide few definitive answers. Instead, as New York Times best-selling author Deborah Harkness says in her introduction, the book invites the reader to join us at the heart of the mystery.". Couverture rigide. As New/Fine.