Secrets of the Voynich Manuscript

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Күн бұрын

The channel now has OFFICIAL MERCH! To get hold of your own, head to Crowdmade.com with this link:
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The Voynich Manuscript is well-deserving of the title “the most mysterious book of all time”.
This fifteenth-century text is full of weird drawings: from alien plants with no biological counterpart to miniature people operating an array of unknown machines. And then there’s the writing: it’s composed in a mystery language, complete with a unique alphabet and grammar. To this day, no one has definitively solved this ancient code.
In this video, I want to investigate the world’s most mysterious book, and explore the secrets of the Voynich Manuscript. From its mysterious history, passing from the hands of scholars, emperors and book dealers; to its illustrations, and how they have much in common with early medical textbooks. When it comes to the cryptic language(s) there are countless theories ranging from natural languages like Hebrew or Latin, to constructed languages built from scratch. With a topic as complex as the Voynich manuscript, there is plenty I haven’t been able to talk about. But I hope this video offers a solid introduction to one of humanity’s greatest mysteries…
I really hope you enjoyed this one, and thank you all for your patience! I thought it was time I made a long-form video. I’ll be away on vacation these next few weeks, so it may be a while until my next upload. But I hope this video gives you plenty to chew on. Thanks for 642k subscribers!
H.
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Chapters
00:00 Announcement!
00:11 Intro
01:09 “The World’s Most Mysterious Book”
02:47 The History
08:36 The Illustrations
16:54 The Writing
23:33 The Theories
30:52 Concluding Thoughts
33:26 Outro
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Sources & Further Reading:
Digitised Copy
collections.library.yale.edu/...
Voynich Manuscript - Wiki
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich...
Voynich.nu
www.voynich.nu/index.html
The Strange Quest to Crack the Voynich Code - Undark
undark.org/2020/02/12/decodin...
AI didn’t decode the cryptic Voynich manuscript… it just added to the mystery - The Verge
www.theverge.com/2018/2/1/169...
The Voynich Manuscript: Evidence of the Hoax Hypothesis - Schinner (2007)
What We Know About The Voynich Manuscript - Reddy & Knight (2011)
Decoding Anagrammed Texts Written in an Unknown Language and Script - Hauer & Kondrak (2016)
The Linguistics of the Voynich Manuscript - Bowern & Lindemann (2020)
Wellcome Apocalypse - Wellcome Collection
wellcomecollection.org/works/...
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Music:
Intro - Epic of Gilgamesh in Sumerian by Peter Pringle www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUcTs...
A Celtic Blessing by Bonnie Grace
Via Epidemic Sound
Dark Water Secrets by Kikoru
Via Epidemic Sound
Two Lover’s Bane by David Celeste
Via Epidemic Sound
The Inspector by David Celeste
Via Epidemic Sound
Erudition by Amber Jaune
Via Epidemic Sound
Godsend by Johannes Bornlof
Via Epidemic Sound
Wandering Soul by Gabriel Lewis
Via Epidemic Sound
The Mist by Gavin Luke
Via Epidemic Sound
The Inventor by David Celeste
Via Epidemic Sound
Outro - Peaceful Ambient Music by CO.AG kzfaq.info/love/cav... License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
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Find me on Social Media:
Twitter: / hochelaga_yt
Instagram: / hochelaga_yt
Discord: / discord
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Email me: hochelagaenquiries@outlook.com

Пікірлер: 1 800

@hochelaga Жыл бұрын

Hey! The channel now has OFFICIAL MERCH! Head over to Crowdmade with this link: crowdmade.com/collections/hochelaga.

@storming. Жыл бұрын

@NotFckingBen Жыл бұрын

Howdy

@Skrot7 Жыл бұрын

OMG OMG OMG

@Skrot7 Жыл бұрын

@@crc9564 I agree with your first statement, but the other one. Would you care explaining why you don’t like youtuber merch?

@Skrot7 Жыл бұрын

I would LOVE some merch with your logo on the right side, and maybe an ophanim on the back? It seems better than “heavens angels.”

@UncleCatfish Жыл бұрын

my wife bought me a replica of the Voynich Manuscript last Christmas :) I "read" it nearly every day. it even has the letter included

@joz6683 Жыл бұрын

Such a cool present, Both me and my wife are fascinated by this book I think that I will look for a copy online, thanks for the a great present idea.

@kelf114 Жыл бұрын

@@joz6683 Amazon has them - hardcover and paperback. I am definitely ordering one on payday next week!!

@anima6035 Жыл бұрын

Couple goals 😍 please god let me find a partner who gets me cool gifts like this 🙏

@lindseyroselights2306 Жыл бұрын

How do you read it if it’s unreadable??

@joz6683 Жыл бұрын

@@lindseyroselights2306 I would use my Imagination....

@BazukinBelyugovich Жыл бұрын

In some ways, the theory that the Voynich Manuscript was written in a "universal" language makes the story kind of sad, because if the theory is true, then that means the project failed in its goal, as the book is now anything but universally readable. On the other hand, it made the book way more famous than it would have been if it was always readable.

@jenh8324 Жыл бұрын

I don't believe it's sad. I believe it is meant to be read when humanity is ready to hear it! I think it's exciting to see how long it will be!

@BazukinBelyugovich Жыл бұрын

@@jenh8324 That's a good take :)

@omegatired Жыл бұрын

Considering that the last universal language we tried for, Esperanto, did not catch on either, not really surprising if that's what this is.

@marcoasturias8520 Жыл бұрын

A failure, just like Esperanto, next time, try Toki Pona.

@ticket2space621 Жыл бұрын

@@marcoasturias8520 yes, better to try something else that nobody's heard of either

@Ms-Fortune 8 ай бұрын

I have a theory: The “bathing” section is actually an explanation of a plant’s anatomy and reproduction. Especially reproductive anatomy. The writer imagined women (or female parts) contained within the plants that gave birth to seeds inside chambers, surrounded by life-fluid (green, because it’s plants), and the seeds were carried out by tubes. So the entire text is about plants and herbs. The astrology bits are like you said, based on what to take when.

6 ай бұрын

I would agree, to me these look like internal organs. Maybe a fertility medicine book? For the language, could it be greek? Maybe church slavonic? I wonder why these weren’t mentioned?

@gryotharian 6 ай бұрын

@yeah I had the thought of Greek too, not really sure why though or any way to back it up

@leifjansson8074 6 ай бұрын

Please note that the final picture showing here, and elsewhere in the video, is of the female reproduction organs. You can easily see the ovaries and the fallopian tubes leading to the uterus! Any obstretician will confirm this.

@bopshi 5 ай бұрын

I love this interpretation

@mlokgerm 3 ай бұрын

I don’t think it’s Greek, doesn’t look right.

@hylacinerea970 Жыл бұрын

my first special interest was “weird history”- i remember being obsessed with the manuscript. this was when i first understood “information decay” & how much is simply lost to the sands of time. now i’m hoping to become a paleoarcheologist. i love the ancient world

@LvUhcX Жыл бұрын

there’s nothing new under the sun

@colbyfroude2941 11 ай бұрын

@@LvUhcXwhat do you mean?

@LvUhcX 11 ай бұрын

@@colbyfroude2941 people often believe they are in the modern times, except cave arts show laptops etc ‘technology today, in the end, the inevitable doomsday

@when-do-we-get-a-block-button 10 ай бұрын

@@colbyfroude2941probably along the lines of "everything has been found/learned, but so much has been lost"

@shelbyb9965 9 ай бұрын

I'm fascinated by digital archaeology. We have the data but can't retrieve it because all of the devices to do so have been lost or destroyed. As time goes on, this will be more and more prevalent.

@codywaller2840 Жыл бұрын

After seeing some of the images from the “bathing section” I kind of think they might be referring to human anatomy or organs. The one with the woman in the “bathing machine” ( 13:52 ) looks quite like ovaries, at 13:56 it looks like maybe intestines, and at 14:41 it could be a stomach. The green coloration may be due to it supposed to be bile or stomach acid. This would also correspond with it being health focused or atleast about the natural world. But that’s just my theory. Great video as always!

@SkaveRat Жыл бұрын

That was my first reaction as well. and 14:00 looks like a bladder with... male anatomy

@fukhungyudarman3958 Жыл бұрын

Why does it have naked women in them tho? red herring?

@pinkhardhat6 Жыл бұрын

I agree. I think the bathing women are a misdirection as clearly the author(s) went to a great deal of trouble to disguise the book. I believe human dissection was still banned by the church during the Middle Ages, so they would have had good reason to hide what was being recorded.

@michaeldiaz3865 Жыл бұрын

Exactly what I see as well! 👍

@superfunnyjoke3922 Жыл бұрын

That’s what I thought as well it looked like a stomach and intestines to me

@YanasooSibarah Жыл бұрын

Your videos make me feel peaceful, like reading a good creepy book when you're a child in a quiet corner of the library, surrounded by that old book smell.

@Auvisome Жыл бұрын

That’s just a fart

@FirstDagger Жыл бұрын

@@Auvisome ; Please visit a doctor if your farts smell like that, you might have intestinal problems.

@samsunguser3148 Жыл бұрын

@@Auvisome no. old book smell is something else

@GraveyardTricks Жыл бұрын

I'll surround you by an old book smell

@Auvisome Жыл бұрын

@@samsunguser3148 just a fart. Stinky and smelly

@Oshawatt 6 ай бұрын

It would be so funny if this was just a sketchbook where some guy doodled and practiced calligraphy

@stevenjlovelace Жыл бұрын

It really makes you think about how difficult it would be to decipher an extraterrestrial language.

@biteme1167 4 ай бұрын

"To serve man", It's a cook book!!....lol. Cue Rod Serling.....

@anikinmartinez4726 2 ай бұрын

well this is mostly difficult to decipher because there's only so much to extrapolate from just one little book. with enough material, an extraterrestrial language might not be nearly as hard to crack.

@romandyomin671 Жыл бұрын

Decoding this book is basically an annual tradition at this point, every year someone claims to have finally decoded and foud the true™ meaning of the mysterious text.

@johnprashanth Жыл бұрын

it's probably a collection of typos created by the first steam-powered automaton

@leoncollins5932 Жыл бұрын

It seems obvious, but I have to wonder if if anyone has ever held the pages up to a mirror to see if the characters form the letters and words of some known language when reversed.

@johnprashanth Жыл бұрын

@@leoncollins5932 not to be mean but that's probably the first thing anyone would do. You really think that no one thought of this in the last 700 or so years? Damn, now imagine you're right! Lol

@tpilot_error404 Жыл бұрын

To me it seems those are pictures of bacteria, viruses , blood vessels and internal organs. They where made to look like plants and bathtubs to deceive , cuz their knowledge, how they got it and such ,was not for the public or authorities to know of. The astronomical part looks like it is intended for another script originally.

@X2ThaV8174 Жыл бұрын

@@johnprashanth damn bro you’re really bad at not sounding kinda mean

@OtakuUnitedStudio Жыл бұрын

Alchemists actually did deal with plants as part of their processes. Many solvents and reagents start out as plant extracts that are heated, refined, and purified in various ways. Plants were also known to be the sources of various useful elements, like how sulphur is found in garlic. Alchemy dealt with whatever matter early scientists wanted to experiment with, and included everything from vegetation to minerals to meat to bodily waste. Phosphorus was discovered through one alchemist's obsession with urine, which by the way has its own (at the time) well known symbol in alchemical formulae. Urine, I mean.

@benjamin5370 Жыл бұрын

We’re they aware of chemicals at this time? I’m not sure in the 15th century if they could make the connection between the “healing plants” and metals. I feel like that might have come later on

@CCSophia528 Жыл бұрын

@@benjamin5370 Alchemist had/have their own periodic table. It has a lot of early known metals on it, gold, iron, copper, tin, and others…. The periodic table we have today started somewhere, it was put together as discoveries were made, and evolved into what we have today.

@benjamin5370 Жыл бұрын

@@CCSophia528 when was that?

@CCSophia528 Жыл бұрын

@@benjamin5370 it predates the 9th century when it was introduced to Europe…. Copper was identified as a metal as far back as 9000 BC, iron 7000 BC, Gold 5000 BC….

@benjamin5370 Жыл бұрын

@@CCSophia528 not plants though, that’s what I’m saying.

@DeidreL9 Жыл бұрын

It’s fascinating. Imagine a regional dialect, transcribed phonetically, then coded. Twice. That sounds entirely plausible. Especially if the authors were in a persecuted group with many reasons to hide their knowledge. I thought of Hildegard, I’m glad you brought her up. Wondrous stuff🙌

@l.k.5996 11 ай бұрын

i’ve had a similar theory to your’s on the purpose of this. in America, the witch trials started in the 1600s, but in Europe they began in the 1400s i think which matches with the carbon dating. whether those who wrote the book truly believed in and practiced witchcraft or if they were solely trying to preserve the knowledge of what they believed to have medicinal properties, i can see it being written in a coded or constructed language to avoid persecution at the time

@louieo.blevinsmusic4197 3 ай бұрын

I was thinking one healer that got lucky collective writings turned into a coded book. Worked on the upper class. Kinda like medicine in America today I.E. Magic Johnson had the $.

@mac5565 Жыл бұрын

A while ago I came across a video series where some guy did some actual linguistics on the script, starting from the names of some plants and astronomical things, and hypothesised that it in was an offshoot of the Syriac alphabet (a fairly obscure alphabet in itself), used to write a language that would have been a cousin of Romani, spoken in the Middle East around the 1200s or so. Despite the fact that this would require the existence of a completely unknown people group, the argument was surprisingly compelling, and all the more tantalising for the fact that the video maker didn't know any Romani speakers to try decoding the text. The project was left in limbo after video number 3, and now the whole series has been removed from his channel, although part one used to be at /watch?v=4cRlqE3D3RQ and can still be found on the Wayback Machine. Weird but cool, I thought.

@ashwinnair4816 11 ай бұрын

Pretty interesting, thanks for sharing.

@2010RSHACKS 10 ай бұрын

They were interesting videos but I think he removed them because he is wrong

@mac5565 10 ай бұрын

@@2010RSHACKS I mean yeah he was almost certainly wrong about the identity of the language, but the comparison of the script to Syriac was interesting at the very least, and the comparison he made in video 3 between the star chart in the book and one in (I think) India seemed to be valid. I think he said somewhere that he took down the old videos with plans to redo them, but I guess he lost interest for whatever reason. Who knows.

@arisoda 7 ай бұрын

@@mac5565 never remove man... :/ sad

@ryansnapfood3142 7 ай бұрын

ive seen it compared with every language in the world lol. it cannot ever be deciphered.

@diverguy3556 Жыл бұрын

I have a complete colour reproduction of the Voynich Manuscript, it's called "The Voynich Manuscript" published by Beinecke Book & Manuscript Library, and is edited by Raymond Clemens. It cost about 100 GBP, and is wonderful. Its a complete, 1:1 size colour reproduction with many fold outs for the more complex diagrams. I've spent many hours engrossed in it.

@KaysinKacei Жыл бұрын

Thank you for this, I now know what I'm getting my dad for Christmas!

@chrisbuckley1785 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for this. 👍 It's also available in full online but nothing can compare to an actual copy.

@izamanaick Жыл бұрын

where did you buy it from?

@diverguy3556 Жыл бұрын

@@izamanaick Amazon UK

@izamanaick Жыл бұрын

oh cool, its on offer for £25 there haha

@jean9853 Жыл бұрын

I wasn’t having a particularly great day today, but to be able to end my night with hochelaga analyzing one of the many mysterious manuscripts and books I’ve been fascinated by for years is a blessing I’m grateful for. Hoping to see a similar analysis of the Codex Gigas soon!

@darthnihilus9258 Жыл бұрын

keep it up king. don´t let these people screw your 1440 minutes you have in a day up!

@mrnicholaswong Жыл бұрын

Bump Codex Gigax

@SoupieGuitar Жыл бұрын

Hope your day gets better 😌

@isellcrack3537 Жыл бұрын

Actually that’s what I was thinking - that the next episode is probably going to be about the Devil’s Bible (other name of Codex Gigas for those who are unaware).

@vin2620 Жыл бұрын

bea pfp 💗💗

@CaitlinKoi 6 ай бұрын

Getting a PDF of this manuscript, along with the Codex Seraphinianus (a codex that was intentionally written as nonsense language), were huge inspirations for the early 2010 reforms I made to my own conlang. Maybe it's just because I've been creating this conlang for 21 years and because it's one of my special interests, but it surprises me how so many people don't consider that it was a conlang made by and for its elusive owner. Not all conlangs are made to be read by others, but exist purely for their creators.

@forestprophet 4 ай бұрын

Can we read about this conlang anywhere, sister? I'm curious :)

@AscendingBliss 8 ай бұрын

I'd be willing to bet that the Voynich Manuscript is actually a book of poetry and tales, written by someone who was inspired by scenes of art and flora they had witnessed throughout their life. It looks less like scientific diagrams and more like sketches from one's imagination, loosely inspired by other art and nature of that time period. I suspect it is moreso a book full of ideas, rather than records.

@DieysonGomesCC Жыл бұрын

I've played around with developing alphabets for my short stories and I would also consider de possibility of the author creating the language for himself or close associates. The text and drawings are meant to look alien, but there could be an equivalent of everything in real life that only those involved knew about. Some sort of equivalent tables. the weird blue flowers could be equivalent to sun flowers, the weird hybrid herbs could mean the combination of some existing equivalent herbs. You know, to protect trade secrets. I imagine someone has come up with this hypotesis in the last 600 years, but you gotta give credit to the authors for developing such a tough to crack manuscript.

@vinny9868 Жыл бұрын

I don't think the blue flowers could be sunflowers because the book was written before Europeans colonized the Americas.

@DieysonGomesCC Жыл бұрын

@@vinny9868 Yeah, I meant it as an example of equivalents, but could be a dandelion, daisy, or other sunflower looking plants. I'm not really knowledgeable in plant life, had to google for more sunflower looking plants lol

@DieysonGomesCC Жыл бұрын

@@Vercur That's a very interesting take. I've created an alphabet for myself (mainly to save passwords, password hints and some "runes" I place in my drawings with some rules as to how you combine vowels and consonants, but still it's a direct translation of my native language. I hope to be able to make up words eventually. but, yeah, the manuscript could very well be a written language made up for the writer himself and the drawings could be from his imagination (for a fictional story or something) or equivalents to real objects that he didn't want anyone to properly undestand. Or could be just a very elaborate centuries old hoax lol

@Kitsaplorax Жыл бұрын

Alchemists had an entire discipline devoted to plants. Largely consisting of information on making elixers and ashes, there's an extensive literature on this

@kayzeaza Жыл бұрын

He mentions that

@B727X Жыл бұрын

@@kayzeazahe said they only delt with metals and rocks tho

@Eisenwulf666 Жыл бұрын

This.

@fredpeterson75 Жыл бұрын

I've seen so many videos on the Voynich manuscript that I almost skipped this one. But as always you impress by giving a far more in depth and interesting overview than your peers. Fantastic job.

@levyzimand9822 Жыл бұрын

As someone who can read Hebrew, I can tell you the singular letter (vav) does translate to "and", but that is only when used at the beginning of a word, it is never used as a word by itself.

@superscatboy Жыл бұрын

Yeah, that Hebrew translation is widely accepted as being terrible.

@levyzimand9822 Жыл бұрын

@@superscatboy I was just showing another reason it is a bad one

@BlastedRodent Жыл бұрын

Like others have mentioned, the “baths” look an awful lot like internal organs. I also find it interesting that all the people depicted are women. To me, it looks like a depiction of a woman’s body (with the tiny people being a fanciful way of depicting her organs functioning). Could the knowledge in the book have something to do with midwifery? Both herbs and star charts are obviously relevant to managing fertility. If the book is an encyclopedia of gynecological knowledge, the indecipherable text could be a way to disguise that fact from disapproving eyes?

@rue6914 7 ай бұрын

I agree with the interpretation. I guess we will never know😢

@nunchuk28 Жыл бұрын

it's been almost 10 years since I first heard of this book and hearing it's still unciphered and talked about today makes it all the more fascinating.

@arn3107 Жыл бұрын

ever think that it might just be a normal book about someone's research but because it's mysterious people think it's something incredible

@user-gz1nv6nw3q 7 ай бұрын

Wait till you here how old it is

@Whatever1076 Жыл бұрын

Another possibility is that it was made with the intention of selling it to some noble or other rich person who dabbled in Alchemy. The fact that the book was in an as yet unknown language would have made it seem more mysterious and alluring. The creator would then approach some wanna-be alchemist and sell it to them and be gone before the rube figured out he'd been conned.

@johnnyrings1813 Жыл бұрын

I like this

@ct92404 Жыл бұрын

That is a very interesting theory, but if so they must have been expecting to get a LOT of money for it! It would have been an unbelievable amount of work to sit down and *hand write* and illustrate a manuscript several hundred pages long. Whoever created it must have had a lot of patience and motivation.

@caruseum Жыл бұрын

@@ct92404 not to mention if it was a scam by voynich he would had to find 250 pages of 300-400 year old pages

@thepopulationofkazakhstan1116 11 ай бұрын

@@ct92404but it was once held by an emperor, so it isn't too far-fetched to think it sold for a lot

@finnmacmanus5723 10 ай бұрын

@@caruseum not a scam by voynich but maybe by it’s original writer in the 1400s, after all the first recorded owner seems to be under the impression that it was written by an old famous philosopher. Maybe someone constructed a language, wrote the book and attributed it to a famous philosopher who’d been dead for 100 years, selling it as a mysterious last work of his. It would have been a huge undertaking but hey we’re still talking about it now so maybe they got a fair bit of money for something like that (it was said to have been owned by an emperor) or maybe he even did it often in his language with different people and subject matters and made his living as a con artist that way, with this one being the only surviving one due to it’s famous and wealthy owners preserving it.

@anguscable2819 Жыл бұрын

my theory is that its basque, from what I can see, most theories are that it is some sort of indo-european language but no one has looked into basque, a language isolate. The names of the months are in occitan which is a geographical neighbour of basque.

@shirl6135 7 күн бұрын

I maybe wrong but Basque was not ‘written’ as there were many sub dialects, until they standardised it?

@jondunlap1892 Жыл бұрын

I've seen some other people wondering if the authors may have made up the language entirely by themselves, but I'm wondering more if the alphabet was invented for an already existing unpopular language. Perhaps there were other texts written in it but they were all lost.

@owloftheinkwell9925 Жыл бұрын

Yea, it could a possibility. I thought that the manuscript could be written in a language gone extinct, the rest of the articles written in it is gone.

@jaxongrant1 Жыл бұрын

I remember watching something where a guy said that it could be all in shorthand, and that's why it's so hard to decipher.

@D-Vinko Жыл бұрын

@@jaxongrant1 Shorthand is a good guess. Based on the 2 languages, and 1 singular encoding language, I guessed that they were apprentice and teacher, with the teacher leaving his manuscript to his apprentice to finish before his death. The reason it doesn't seem like a natural language could be entirely related to the use of shorthand, which could be related to the apprentice having to write down the goings-on very quickly. It's also possible that the teacher was an apprentice in the early 15th century, became a teacher himself, and then he had another apprentice between then, and when the manuscript is found in Prague, where the second apprentice (having become a teacher/practitioner), may have traveled and died due to exposure to new diseases, or any number of things. Then, the book must've been discovered, written in shorthand of a constructed version of Italian or French, or maybe the person was bilingual, or both of the writers were. Once discovered, the curiosity would be impossible for a medieval European.

@tiredovhell Жыл бұрын

@@D-Vinko this was one of the most sound/best theories I've heard in a long time

@LoisoPondohva Жыл бұрын

@@jaxongrant1 as a person who has worked with official Russian shorthand and is familiar with some historic and foreign systems, that doesn't look too likely. There're several reasons, but the main one is lack of 1-letter and abundance of 2-letter words that seem to function like some sort of article. In all shorthands I know of a lot of popular words are reduced to 1 symbol and in most articles are omitted entirely.

@manuelmunoz3337 Жыл бұрын

The Rongo-Rongo tablets are impossible to translate. not because the island was deserted, but because in the 19th century Peruvian slavers massacred and kidnapped the Rapa Nui to use them as slaves in the silver mines. In this "genocide" the entire priestly class died, leaving less than 500 Rapa Nui alive on the island.

@GNMbg Жыл бұрын

shit happens

@ussinussinongawd516 Жыл бұрын

Yeah but people still speak the Rapa Nui language, so its not "long lost" as Hochelaga had said.

@manuelmunoz3337 Жыл бұрын

@@ussinussinongawd516 The language it's not lost, the meaning of the symbols are, we don't know if they are some kind of alphabet, pictograms or something completely different, and we may never know

@jttnc Жыл бұрын

@@GNMbg bruh 😂

@helldog9402 Жыл бұрын

@@ussinussinongawd516 also ß is pronounced like s, not b

@urbainleverrier1 Жыл бұрын

This reminds me of the Codex Seraphinianus. What if this was just an ancient version of that book? That'd be very awesome, honestly

@natmol1595 8 ай бұрын

The tone of the orator is exceptional. Precise intonation and inflections too. A breath of fresh air 😎👍

@AlS-du1rt Жыл бұрын

Finally we jave a hoche vid on the voynich manuscript. I have always been fascinated by this, so im finally able to watch some true mystery hunting.

@swampy7943 Жыл бұрын

Has the theory that the "pool section" might contain symbolic anatomical diagrams been considered? Some of the strange tubes look like intestines to me. Similarly, what you referenced as a shower is strikingly similar to perhaps some sort of glands leading to some vesicle? That sort of metaphorical visualisation of scientific information would not be out of place in a medieval manuscript

@swampy7943 Жыл бұрын

It would also fit in with the medical topics of the other sections

@cIoudbank 10 ай бұрын

the one with the lady putting her hands in those tubes- looks more like a uterus to me

@Alex-mw2eq 9 ай бұрын

@@cIoudbanki was literally just thinking this^^^

@RubenKelevra Жыл бұрын

It may be just an ancient form of shorthand. This would explain the more "static" patterns, as words are not words at all, but parts of sentences which are common expressions. It's most certainly not cyphered at all, just written oddly. If we consider this, we could apply machine learning to it and try to match all the characters to the phonetic alphabet, but not single characters in it, but match it to common patterns in each language and then try to find matching words for the phonetic alphabet matches. It's probably hard, because I think this may just be the surviving copy of a much older book and thus doesn't feature more advanced drawings, as the authors in medieval times didn't understand the drawings and the text and thus just did a 1:1 copy as best as they could. It's hard because we have lost most of the aural details of older languages, so there may be a high error rate doing this, but it should at least yield a probable result for this in the form of most matches to a certain language and time. I suspect it may actually be German. I don't know why, but it kinda reminds me of old German texts as they used a shitload of "shorthand" characters, especially at the end of words, to reduce the workload of the writers. So "-gen", "-ung", "-einen", "-nen" are common endings in German and using just one single character would speed up things very well.

@kayzeaza Жыл бұрын

Nah it’s more likely to be a code than short hand. If it was shorthand we would recognize more of the words.

@RubenKelevra Жыл бұрын

@@kayzeaza where does your assumption based on? I mean modern writers can hardly read other people's shorthand, let alone a 500+ years old variant maybe just used by a small group of people.

@doubaya2959 5 ай бұрын

My handwriting is so bad in high school that no one including me cant read it. My teacher called my book the real Voynich Manuscript.

@B3ani3B0y Жыл бұрын

@26:00 Regarding Rongorongo, the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) were and are still inhabitants of the island. What's interesting and sad is that at one point there was a group of people who knew how to speak and write Rongo Rongo. The people of Rapa Nui even signed a contract with the Spanish in RongoRongo. However those people were more than likely killed or enslaved by the Peruvians and European diseases years before the tablets were recognized for what they were. By the time anthropologists came across these tablets most were destroyed for survival purposes. Trees had become sparse and with no one left to even read the tablets they started to be used as firewood, fishing lures, tools and for other more practical applications (to the dismay of anthropologists). We know very little of rongorongo, only small guesses as to what glyphs represent, and that it is read line for line left to right and rotated 180° for every line.

@TygerTigerable Жыл бұрын

The artwork is intriguing - the linework has a different cadence to it, and widths than the text. The text is so uniform and concise, the artwork looks almost like it was done with a far less practiced hand. Even the confident fall offs of the text doesn't match the stuttery, wobbly marks in the art, and the way some parts are colored in seem downright chaotic compared to the smoothness of the writing. I mean, possible different instruments, or brushes, maybe but in my experience - usually (an artist's medium) confidence carries over. Almost strikes me as two folks playing about, making something together. Almost want to ask if anyone has just checked if the text is just something more common backwards and upside down (because the art is colored in so un-precisely, like if someone reached over n splotched it on)

@cheshire3909 Жыл бұрын

I was actually thinking the same. What if the texts were backwards or read upside-down?

@theangriestcatintheworld Жыл бұрын

@@cheshire3909 I was thinking along the same lines-- backwards/upside down/mirror image or a combination of one or more.

@ogenevieve Жыл бұрын

@@cheshire3909 I was thinking the same so I took a few screenshots of the pages, then with the editing stuff in my phones photo app I flipped it upside down, backwards and flipped it again as if it were written in a mirror's reflection. There is still something not quite right about the use of numbers and repeated "words."

@Awardeez Жыл бұрын

Backwards,reverse,upside down,mirrored view have been tried many times

@Mote. Жыл бұрын

Out of all the voynich manuscript videos I've seen, yours is my favorite. You talk about details no one else mentions, like the astrology part and the readable month names.

@alexcarbor Жыл бұрын

This is the best analysis you can find about this manuscript on KZfaq. Thanks

@carpo719 Жыл бұрын

Great video, I have always been fascinated by this book. I wanted to lend an angle about why it MAY have been forged, if it was... Apparently there was a lot of energy put into faking skills and alchemy in order to gain Kings favor, as if you were close to the king, you had it made. So some would forge medical literature (using a cypher) and claim to be the ONLY one who knows how to read it. This meant the king would be in their hands, and nobody else could translate the book. If you spent a couple years making a forgery, it could reward you with a lifetime of comfort. Some would even pretend to make gold, and give a little to the king to convince him they were really alchemists. Worth it in those times. Just look how far people go TODAY for wealth!

@leadingauctions8440 Жыл бұрын

This video on the manuscript gave a lot of information not mentioned in other videos. Explaining a little bit of how code-breaking works was nice as well.

@jennym.2631 Жыл бұрын

I love how you put together your video. In the beginning, I didn't think I might hear a lot of new information about the topic but you analyzed it so well. I love the idea of an author, inventing two languages based on European or other real-life languages as Tolkien did.

@logicaldude3611 Жыл бұрын

It looks like art to me. It strikes me as someone creating a piece of art rather than a readable book. People do weird things. I can see someone who was obsessed with art and literature who decided to combine them both into a book. The words might be meaningless, it looks as thought it’s meant to look elaborate and mysterious.

@CJM-rg5rt 10 ай бұрын

@@DevourTheLoreafter the insane pictures I just saw of its animals I'm definitely not taking any of them seriously. I'm not trying to be smug but they're all very clearly fictitious, that was their thing back then too. It's all crazy shit and a half ass dinosaur thing wouldn't make me stop and think for half a second.

@Alexstark444 Жыл бұрын

The one with the "baths" reminds me of wine making. Especially the one at 14:44, where the grapes would be transported through the tubes to a large tub where the women are stomping on them to make the wine. Edit: Also, the whole thing could be like a lore book, where all the plants are made up, belonging to a fantasy world for a game, or novel.

@SomeGuy1117 Жыл бұрын

Imagine how funny it would be if we found out it was a medieval Dungeon Master's handbook or something lol. It would explain the hard work of creating an elaborate language, the amateurish drawings, and all of the things without real world parallels. Modern tabletop fans do far more so it fits.

@EternalEdgeLord Жыл бұрын

@@SomeGuy1117 Just a bunch of peasant teenagers playing around with some papers stolen from a monk or something lol

@majlordag1889 Жыл бұрын

That's interesting

@mdfm28 Жыл бұрын

I think it is about digestive system. For me the illustraion resemble anatomy of urethra in bladder, stomach, kidney and with the most resemblance are intestine with it's circular folds. I think the grape stomping meant to illustrate the digestion process

@majlordag1889 Жыл бұрын

@@mdfm28 I saw a video on instagram the other day that said a lot of mythology makes sense when you consider people had bad eyesight before glasses were invented.. could that be one of the reasons it looks so weird? However if that was the case the writings might also be messy, probbaly more likely they couldn't draw it in a literal way due to taboo at the time

@amywhelan4888 Жыл бұрын

This channel is such a treasure. I feel so enriched and curious about all the topics you cover. You really provide a great jump-off point to encourage more reading, more research, and more learning. Every video is a treat!

@chrisd6287 Жыл бұрын

The word distribution you spoke of is called Zipfs Law/ Distribution. It's really fascinating. Great job on the video my friend! I always enjoy any coverage on the Voynich Manuscript and you presented in ways here I've never seen and it was fantastic. Cheers!

@philjohn2649 Жыл бұрын

What a great channel to stumble upon, and on this subject - very well articulated delivery of mystery I’ve wondered about.

@MoonlessNight126 Жыл бұрын

What I loved about this the most is how lengthy the video is! We need more deep dives! Your videos are a pleasure to watch and so the lengthier it is the better.

@SoupieGuitar Жыл бұрын

The "bathing" section looks like disguised anatomical drawings, like someone has dissected veins and arteries.

@Beeeer1996 Күн бұрын

Thank you !!!! That's what I was thinking !!

@ahmakki Жыл бұрын

when you said that there are certain letters that are always followed by certain other letters it made me think of Japanese, maybe those letters are not two different letters but one letter that looks like two different ones and that's why they are always next to each other. And if this is a secret code that would be great way to confuse people who try to break it. ... But I am sure some one have all ready thought of that.

@emrey5745 Жыл бұрын

I've seen a few videos about this already so I was pleasantly surprised that I still got to learn something new about it. Your video is probably the best one I've seen so far.

@GigaHumble Жыл бұрын

Your storytelling style mixed with the brilliant background music is so unique. Just have to say that, your style got me hooked to your content. Keep up the awesome work!

@thomasbell7033 Жыл бұрын

So happy to have found this astonishing channel. No crackpottery, just reason and rationality. Thank you.

@no-du1qn Жыл бұрын

Crackpottery!?!? Goodness that is a strange word.

@thomasbell7033 Жыл бұрын

@@no-du1qn You like that one? It's fun to invent adjectives to fit the purpose.

@adankmeme651 Жыл бұрын

@@thomasbell7033 indeed

@RealBradMiller Жыл бұрын

I own a copy of the Voynich manuscript, it's just photocopies of each page, including the pullout leaf parts. Crazy fascinating, some of the plants do look familiar, but the inner coloring looks like they are being view under a microscope. The book is in storage right now or I'd whip it out and give page numbers to the plants that look familiar and other things I had written down. Truly an amazing mystery and one of my favorite things to flip through.

@hugonegrete6325 Жыл бұрын

We all have to admire the beauty of the script, it looks wonderful & I can't wait for the day somebody's finally able to read the conscript, maybe they even made a Conlang to go with the book, or maybe it's a masterpiece of worlbuilding

@madroachin7388 Жыл бұрын

It feels like a mixture of a few of these theories. It seems like some historical dialect or derivation of Occitan maybe even spelled with a person or group’s own spelling rules for that language. This seems especially plausible if it were written in a language that didn’t have its own kingdom that maintained the grammar of the language through official use. Said language could also have been written in a cipher as a sort of patent protection of the era to keep their trade secrets. Or this could be a mixture of Occitan with another language in Europe, maybe one that also has fallen into obscurity. If only humans didn’t like destroying history when conquering new places… Regardless, AMAZING video, Hochelaga !!!

@karstais Жыл бұрын

It was found in Prague so i was thinking something like Yiddish or Hebrew spelled weirdly. The text doesn't seem to have a discernible wrighting direction. There's tails on both ends of words.

@quira4429 Жыл бұрын

My thoughts in this book is that is was written by a woman. It is possible that it was from a midwife or herbalist. Seems the bathing section is about menstruation and childbirth. Maybe a woman in that time period was from a rich enough family that she learned to read and write but just barely ( from a rich merchant/trader or a minor noble). Then language a was taught to another (Or a group or others) and they composed language b. Hidden or new language to keep it a secret (witch burning was a thing, no need to get the powerful in the church's attention). It is always an interesting topic.

@zenoiek Жыл бұрын

I have never forgotten this since you mentioned it as I am so interested (on I think the Cardenio video, actually watched this firstly on ted-ed). I even asked for this on your community post for your Q&A video, never clicked a video this fast before, thank you for this, I better get watching :)

@bruh_hahaha 10 ай бұрын

This is the best documentary of The Voynich Manuscript I’ve seen yet. Well done!

@copperlapislazuli4156 Жыл бұрын

I was always fascinated by this mysterious book. Thank you for making a video about it!

@unknown.ben2006 Жыл бұрын

Watching this video was such a fantastical journey! A mixture of obscure history, secrets of the Middle Ages, strange and obscure mysteries, all covered by one of my favourite channels on youtube! I've already seen a whole bunch of videos on this topic, but this one, with solid 34 minutes of investigation, is certainly my favourite of them. You really know how to do a good job on explaining and investigating this kind of topic. The reason why I love this book is the mistery it's shrouded in. The language, the drawings, the person who created it, the purpose it may served... We know barely nothing abut any thing about this book, and this is what makes it so interesting and mystic; so marvelous and eerie.

@toboeStar Жыл бұрын

I really enjoyed this video! You did a great job with the research and presentation! This is a great example that scientific mysteries are intruiging on their own without paranormal theories accompanying them

@troutfish8590 Жыл бұрын

Amazing video as always! Definitely the best video on the Voynich Manuscript I have seen.

@rdt1104 Жыл бұрын

"They laughed derisively, speaking among themselves in that mysterious tongue, CHAKOBSA, 'the Hunting Language', which the rulers and Princes used when they wished to converse in secret, and of which no more than a few words have been discovered."

@nperm8250 4 ай бұрын

Im confused?

@Mutxarra Жыл бұрын

12:43 Hey! That's catalan! What a nice surprise to see our language in here! Great video, btw!

@danniantagonist Жыл бұрын

Thank you for this detailed look into this intriguing artefact. Your voice and dissection of the topic is engaging, and make me want to find out more! I can't help but wonder if it's a fictional text. The first ever known fantasy novel, set in a strange land with strange plants and its own language.... Maybe the story was known at the time, so having more than one scribe was possible.....? Who knows!?

@meunome5867 11 ай бұрын

My friend, your channel is exactly everything i've always wanted, interesting stuff with some depht of analysis and critical sense, i'm binging all your videos in my free time, thx!

@pherasabraxas Жыл бұрын

I remember reading about this manuscript for the first time in a book that compiled all sorts of mysteries. I was immediately hooked.Then I was psyched to see the pages through the wonders of the internet. Oh internet, you glorious dumpster fire with hidden gems scattered about.

@verylostdoommarauder Жыл бұрын

I like XKCD's theory that it's the manual for playing a medieval version of Dungeons and Dragons.

@mangogo44 Жыл бұрын

I've been into speculative biology projects lately and it looks just like a book on some fictional world flora and fauna. I like it.

@finnish_hunter Жыл бұрын

Cograts on getting your own merch! I have been watching your videos for a year now and I can say that I don't regret it.

@Eroxi3 Жыл бұрын

Has anyone else heard of the family who has been working to decide this for decades? They found a lot of connections to Turkish language and their theory is that it was similar to a midwife's herbal book. It's been over a year since I've looked into it but nobody else talks about the genuine breakthroughs that have happened thanks to that family

@kevinf8439 Жыл бұрын

Sounds like one of thousands so called decipherments. There are at least a dozen every year

@nutyyyy Жыл бұрын

It was interesting when I first heard it but like many before they can't seem to actually provide good evidence to back up their claims.

@mattdelarosa6819 Жыл бұрын

Yeah I’ve heard of them! I was looking through the comments to see if anyone else knew about them also. I saw a pretty in depth video about them that actually showed them translating an entire page of one of the plants that turned out to be a sunflower and the descriptions of what it looks like, when it grows, etc etc

@repeatedecho Жыл бұрын

@@mattdelarosa6819 do you know whtavthe channel is called?

@Game_Hero Жыл бұрын

24:25 Not a conclusive attempt.

@MetalTheMaker Жыл бұрын

My best guess is, if it's a real language, it may be a Cagot language. They are a mysterious, "lost" race of people with ties to the French (basque and occitans), and almost all information on them was burned away during the French Revolution.

@spacelemming4493 Жыл бұрын

Yeah it could be like Dalmatian, we new they existed but the last speaker died some time ago, if these languages ever had a form of medieval writing it would shorely be imposible to link to any surviving documents.

@cjclark1208 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info.

@Sarah-yj6lf Жыл бұрын

I just stumbled on this channel and I love the narration! You should be hosting documentaries for History Channel, or a network with equally deep pockets!

@leattts6602 Жыл бұрын

This is your best work so far. Thank you for this.

@saurdalaire Жыл бұрын

This channel is probably my favourite on this platform and the last 6 months of knowing of its existence has made youtube significantly better :D and getting a 30 minute video like this one is a great way to end the day!

@NotFckingBen Жыл бұрын

I was literally just reading an article on this and then you uploaded, THANK YOU

@charlesnewman6468 Жыл бұрын

What a coincidence

@TRaWi 5 ай бұрын

This video is in itself a treasure. The quality is amazing, and it was mind blowingly well composed. kudos!

@chris.asi_romeo Жыл бұрын

You did the best voynich manuscript videos I've watched abd I've watched alot. You explained it very well

@joz6683 Жыл бұрын

Great video as always. Thanks for your tireless work and great content. I did not know that the manuscript could have come from southern France. This area was linked to a group called The Cathars, they were a classed as heretics and so could have written in code just as alchemist did. I understand that they vanished before the book was written but the author may have access to their work.

@melo.4489 Жыл бұрын

Just a tiny little correction: at 28:23, Tolkien's name is misspelled. This was an incredible video, and it got me wondering whether there are already versions of the book parsed/tokenised into some more easily computer-processable format out there. (EDIT: Looking through the resources in the description has been a ride so far! There are many such transliterations and systems out there, it seems!) As someone interested in natural language processing, it'd be a fun project to try and fail at applying that knowledge and extracting something out of it. Thank you for the amazing channel. It's been great to see it growing so much.

@dextaa575 8 ай бұрын

i watch your videos over and over again. I'm glad I have been subscribed for years now

@Kucoz Жыл бұрын

this is the best breakdown of the most enigmatic book ever. seriously well researched.

@emilybarclay8831 Жыл бұрын

Worlds oldest shitpost?

@kylergingery991 Жыл бұрын

One of my theories is that this book is not an original, but that it's a replica, there are no mistakes in the writing, and instead of that pointing to a hoax, what if it was just carefully copied, surely having a reference would make it easier to avoid mistakes, and I think this could also perhaps explain the sloppy illustrations, perhaps the author wasn't wanting to put in the work to perfectly replicate the original artistry, or didn't have the skill/time to do so. Copying was a common practice at the time, it was labor intensive, and time consuming work, what if the way the manuscript is presented just reflects the limitations of human hands

@loroleibusser5993 Жыл бұрын

havent seen a video on the voynich manuscript that analyzes the contents like this, amazing stuff!

@wenwuwei7228 Жыл бұрын

I'm so excited for this! I find the Voynich Manuscript super fascinating

@indigo9997 Жыл бұрын

Man, I really love this channel with its obscure topics. Does anyone have any recommendations for similar channels?

@gwan_git Жыл бұрын

mr beast

@solomon6022 Жыл бұрын

Toasters has a few good videos. He's acquainted with Hochelaga.

@jackiespeel6343 8 ай бұрын

One possibility - someone familiar with one script of the time has 'copied' something in another script without comprehending how the letters and contractions are constructed. (You can try this at home.) Wilfrid Voynich is a very interesting character in his own right.

@julekxmetin123pl4 9 ай бұрын

I really liked the video ! thanks for sharing in such a great way !

@oeffleur5840 Жыл бұрын

Excellent video, but the part about Easter Island is NOT correct, the island was NOT deserted at all and the language spoken there is called Rapa Nui which is probably what rongorongo represents. There were also likely people who could read the script at the time of contact by Europeans but the knowledge was lost as a result of the destruction of their society by introduced disease and devastating slave raids. The tablet shown is also not the only surviving example of rongorongo and there are 26 surviving artifacts remaining today that show the script.

@oeffleur5840 Жыл бұрын

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bdBga8qpusmml5c.html here is an amazing video about the subject, skip to 1 hr 26 min for the part about rongorongo

@Munisk52 Жыл бұрын

"the island was not deserted.... but inhabitants were destroyed and enslaved" sounds like "deserted" to me

@ElArto95 Жыл бұрын

Not all of them were enslaved, but they did take the people that were able to read the tablets

@achiyederi3622 Жыл бұрын

As an Israeli Hebrew speaker I really felt some familiarity with the writing since the start. The flow of the writing really resemble Hebrew. And about the months written in the astrology part, remember we, jews have been in Europe and continued our Hebrew writing & speaking throughout the centuries.

@paemonyes8299 Жыл бұрын

I’m not Jewish (or European) but I notice a lot of Hebrews in the past seem to be interested in mysticism..... if you don’t mind me asking, does some of the writing seem to be intelligible for you?

@achiyederi3622 Жыл бұрын

@@paemonyes8299 Not to much, I think I might saw 3 words. But it might just be my mind finding something cause I'm looking for it.

@grimace4257 Жыл бұрын

😒

@achiyederi3622 Жыл бұрын

@@grimace4257 ?

@user-oy4vu3ck3u Жыл бұрын

@@achiyederi3622 I feel that. I was on a bus and two women were speaking in a European language like Polish and all I could hear was random Japanese words I'd been studying. Sometimes the brain compiles things.

@TeriyakiTakeout Жыл бұрын

Have they tested what the paper is made from? As in, they could find what material the paper was made from and trace it back to locations that used those materials most commonly for paper in order to narrow down what language is being used. Also, the bathing section could be about the vascular system and digestion, since they look like the digestive tract to me personally, although there is no way someone from that time could determine that so closely, I imagine.

@vertigo.frog2110 Жыл бұрын

It's made of calfskin, like almost every book in medieval Europe and does not help narrow down the origin

@ulalaFrugilega Жыл бұрын

Great video, as always. Knew about this book before, but as comprehensible as I do now. Even though at one point I did read up on it.

@mildlycornfield Жыл бұрын

I believe the con-lang theory, and I like the idea of the illustrations having been produced from descriptions. I wonder if it might have been compiled from other texts? That might explain the lack of mistakes if the writers were being careful to copy it accurately

@marl3ymarl3y86 Жыл бұрын

It is my personal theory that this is a conlang, and the illustrations are fantastical because they are the result of imagination. The reason there are no errors and juvenile illustrations is because it could be a copy of an original.

@alext552 Жыл бұрын

copying by hand, as they did in those days, does not exclude the possibility of making an error

@marl3ymarl3y86 Жыл бұрын

@@alext552 I meant more so the drawings, I know there could be errors copying by hand

@walkingdeadman4208 Жыл бұрын

These pictures and writings are not even copies of the original. You really think the higher ups would even want the public to be able to see the secrets in this book ? They more than likely intentionally put the errors in the book.

@SysterEuropa Жыл бұрын

Superb analysis. The best I have come across.

@eleonoraloconsole400 Жыл бұрын

Finally , I've been waiting for this video :-)

@ioannisloukas4131 Жыл бұрын

Imagine: this just being documented hallucinations of some random dude.

@majlordag1889 Жыл бұрын

I feel like it's possible it was some old wise person that might have had some mental impairments or maybe even younger person.. personality disorders and bipolar etc. Have been around for long, also drugs.. but then again I believe this manuscript is dated to around the time when it could be dangerous to be related to witchy stuff so I think other theories also make sense.. maybe there's more factors than one

@schwermetall666 Жыл бұрын

Looking at the letters that only appear at the end of words: There has in fact been a practice in writing German where you would write the letter "s" differently depending on where in the word it appears (regardless of pronunciation, even though there also is another extra "s" letter that was/is put after long vowels in some words). This practice was standard in writing and used to be adhered to both in handwriting and print (which have historically used different fonts). I wonder if the authors of the Voynich manuscript maybe made use of a similar rule?

@nqnqnq Жыл бұрын

very true. Though, this practice was, in pre-industrial times, largely used my "strong-germaned" speaking people, as in people which held High-German as a definite standard. I wouldn't expect this from an individual from southern France. Though, perhaps he was a merchant which became accustomed to this. It's a really interesting theory indeed!

@user-im1nk2xr4g 8 ай бұрын

Interesting. In greek, there is the capital Σ, the lower case σ and the lower case ς, written only at the end of a word. I would expect other languages to have similar characteristics. Also, prefixes and suffixes are a common thing in the way a language forms its words.

@schwermetall666 8 ай бұрын

@@user-im1nk2xr4g true! That didn't even occur to me!

@voxelsofsorrow 4 ай бұрын

Yes, there are a few theories like that. VolderZ's theory that it was a cousin of the Syriac script would work like that, since those writing systems have different forms depending on whether they're at the start, middle or end. Emma Smith also did an analysis showing that [y] may be an alternate form of [a], by showing that [y] occurs in contexts where [a] would if it were final.