Apr 25, 2024 08:46 PM
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-...ynecology/
EXCERPTS: The Voynich Manuscript is one of the most bizarre and intriguing tomes in the world. The Medieval 200-page book is written in alien looking glyphs that are, so far, indecipherable. Five different scribes were probably involved. The only clues hinting at its contents are its various colorful and rich illustrations of stars, planets, occult-like symbols, plants, and naked women suggesting botanical, astronomical, biological, and pharmaceutical themes.
The mystery of this 600-year-old manuscript has attracted some of the world’s brightest minds looking to break its code. Not much progress has been made, despite their best efforts...
[...] Voynich was an astute collector but also a former convict. He served time as a political prisoner in Warsaw and Eastern Siberia, having escaped from both, before arriving in England with fake papers. However, many doubt that Voynich forged the manuscript as the vellum is undoubtedly centuries old. The manuscript is currently housed at the Yale University library.
Brewer and Lewis noticed that some of the illustrations involve naked women holding objects that point to their genitalia. This initial observation led them down a rabbit hole in which they investigated late-medieval gynecology and sexology.
They eventually found a historical figure of interest, the Bavarian physician Johannes Hartlieb, who lived around the time and place the manuscript was made. Hartlieb seems to check all the boxes of a Manuscript-connected person. His published works mentioned plants, magic, astronomy, and women. He advocated using coded writings such as ciphers and secret alphabets to obscure medical knowledge about contraception and abortion.
According to the researchers, Hartlieb would go through all this trouble because he strongly believed that ‘women’s secrets’ had to stay that way — a secret. In his view, commoners, children, and especially women shouldn’t be made aware of things such as contraceptive or abortive plants, libido-altering diets, or vaginal ointments. Such things would inevitably lead to extramarital sex and God’s wrath would shortly follow, the Medieval scholar thought.
That’s not to say that the researchers think that Hartlieb is the author of the Voynich manuscript. Instead, Hartlieb’s attitudes — if they were indeed widespread — serve as a cultural context. They offer a frame through which to interpret the motivations of the Voynich scribes... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: The Voynich Manuscript is one of the most bizarre and intriguing tomes in the world. The Medieval 200-page book is written in alien looking glyphs that are, so far, indecipherable. Five different scribes were probably involved. The only clues hinting at its contents are its various colorful and rich illustrations of stars, planets, occult-like symbols, plants, and naked women suggesting botanical, astronomical, biological, and pharmaceutical themes.
The mystery of this 600-year-old manuscript has attracted some of the world’s brightest minds looking to break its code. Not much progress has been made, despite their best efforts...
[...] Voynich was an astute collector but also a former convict. He served time as a political prisoner in Warsaw and Eastern Siberia, having escaped from both, before arriving in England with fake papers. However, many doubt that Voynich forged the manuscript as the vellum is undoubtedly centuries old. The manuscript is currently housed at the Yale University library.
Brewer and Lewis noticed that some of the illustrations involve naked women holding objects that point to their genitalia. This initial observation led them down a rabbit hole in which they investigated late-medieval gynecology and sexology.
They eventually found a historical figure of interest, the Bavarian physician Johannes Hartlieb, who lived around the time and place the manuscript was made. Hartlieb seems to check all the boxes of a Manuscript-connected person. His published works mentioned plants, magic, astronomy, and women. He advocated using coded writings such as ciphers and secret alphabets to obscure medical knowledge about contraception and abortion.
According to the researchers, Hartlieb would go through all this trouble because he strongly believed that ‘women’s secrets’ had to stay that way — a secret. In his view, commoners, children, and especially women shouldn’t be made aware of things such as contraceptive or abortive plants, libido-altering diets, or vaginal ointments. Such things would inevitably lead to extramarital sex and God’s wrath would shortly follow, the Medieval scholar thought.
That’s not to say that the researchers think that Hartlieb is the author of the Voynich manuscript. Instead, Hartlieb’s attitudes — if they were indeed widespread — serve as a cultural context. They offer a frame through which to interpret the motivations of the Voynich scribes... (MORE - missing details)