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The Voynich Manuscript May Have Been Decoded

MBCook sends word on a possible solution to the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript, which we last visited nearly 6 years ago. "The Voynich Manuscript has confounded attempts to decode it for nearly 100 years. A person named Edith Sherwood, who has previously suggested a possible link to DaVinci, has a new idea: perhaps the text is simply anagrams of Italian words. There are three pages of examples from the herb section of the book, showing the original text, the plaintext Italian words, and the English equivalents. Has someone cracked the code?"

18 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. I just cracked it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Using my botnet, I finally cracked the message! It's just the same phrase over and over again...

    Drink More Ovaltine

    Anyone have a clue what it means?

  2. This would explain a lot about Ohio politics. by John+Guilt · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, that was Voynich Manuscript...that's different. Never mind.

  3. Hmm... by denzacar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wasn't Voynich Manuscript already solved by Randall Munroe?

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  4. I cracked the code years ago. by Cornwallis · · Score: 5, Funny

    It says:

    Pound pastrami, can kraut,six bagels--bring home for Emma."

    1. Re:I cracked the code years ago. by Megaweapon · · Score: 2, Funny

      It also says:

      Form eyeball-size pieces from the dough
      Roll in the powdered sugar
      And say the Magic Words:
      "Sim sala bim bamba sala do saladim"

      --
      I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
    2. Re:I cracked the code years ago. by donaggie03 · · Score: 2, Funny

      It says:

      Pound pastrami, can kraut,six bagels--bring home for Emma."

      NO NO NO! Whoever heard of "A Canticle for Voynich" ?? It just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

      --
      Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
  5. Oh Crap! by AnotherBrian · · Score: 2, Funny

    Like we need another lame Dan Brown book+movie.

    Also, http://xkcd.com/593/

  6. And it says... by halcyon1234 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis ut nibh et nunc scelerisque vestibulum non ac diam. Sed porttitor mauris a lorem tempus faucibus.

    This is a test of my new pen."

  7. It's a cook book! by Rhaban · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's a cook book!

  8. Re:It Hurts by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 5, Funny

    So she has apparently decoded a manuscript written in a language she does not read (medieval Italian) does not know what a medieval herbal looks like, is not a botanist, a linguist or anything else that would be helpful to decoding a medieval manuscript of any kind .....

    For her next trick she will disprove Einstein, and prove the world is flat .....

    --
    Puteulanus fenestra mortis
  9. It seems highly repetitive by srussia · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hypothesis: Leonardo Da Vinci had a son (perhaps named Bartolomeo). As punishment for Bart's mischief, Leonardo ordered him to write 300 pages' worth of "Non rivelero il segreto di mio padre" using Da Vinci's secret script in mirror image.

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  10. Not far in fact by DrYak · · Score: 2, Funny

    In fact, the working hypothesis of TFA's Author is that the manuscript may have been written by a young - still child - Leonardo, playing around with anagrams and trying to make an imaginary book out of common plants.
    Not that far from children playing "Druids & Dicotyledon 1st Edition"

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  11. Re:It Hurts by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seriously, also on page 4, "mushroom"? OK, you could argue that's like the stem of a mushroom. So why are the very similar figures on previous pages marked "forget" (eh? unless in some medieval italian slang that apparently both dante and da vinci spoke a "forget" was a mushroom of some sort), "waste" (eh? this is the bit of the mushroom, or forget, that you're meant to waste? seriously?), "rapid" (evidently if you eat this particular mushroom, or forget, you rapidly produce waste) or two question marks

    Makes totally sense. Magic mushrooms. Like, dude, if you eat them shrooms, you'll get rapidly wasted and forget about all that shit'n'stuff, like totally, man.

    --
    Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
  12. Re:obMST3K by Culture20 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The link is at least more likely than to Leonardo da Gary Indiana.

    or Leonardo da Ninja Turtle

  13. Re:Debunked almost a year ago by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Funny

    now it just brings out the "Dan Brown is the realz" crowd and other conspiracy nutters.

    Dan Brown IS real. You Dan Brown deniers are the real conspiracy nuts. "It's a ghost-writer" "It's plagiarized from aliens" "My dog is Dan Brown" Nutters all.

  14. First two lines decoded (from the article) by noidentity · · Score: 2, Funny

    In case you don't want to read the article, here are the first two lines they decoded:

    Never gonna give you up,
    Never gonna let you down

  15. Re:Leonardo, not daVinci by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Art historians refer to the renaissance polymath as "Leonardo," not as "Mr. Da Vinci."

    But what if we need to differentiate him from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

  16. Re:It Hurts by Beelzebud · · Score: 2, Funny

    Someone is about to get their ass kicked for saying that!