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The Voynich Manuscript: The World's Most Mysterious Book | Smartest Year Ever (Aug 15, 2025)
What do you do with a book no one can read?
In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy unpacks the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript—a 600-year-old book filled with unknown script, impossible illustrations, and strange zodiac charts that have defied every attempt at decryption.
Discovered by rare book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, this artifact has since become the world’s most famous undeciphered manuscript. Experts from Alan Turing’s colleagues to modern AI models have tried to crack the code—but so far, it remains unsolved. It’s written in an unknown constructed language with statistically valid patterns—but with no clear meaning.
The Voynich Manuscript has been speculated to be a medieval hoax, a coded scientific treatise, or even a women’s health manual—but its real purpose, origin, and meaning remain unknown.
From Zipf’s Law to linguistic entropy, from naked women in green tubs to astrological wheels, this episode explores what we do know about this strange book—and why the mystery might be exactly the point.
Watch to see why the Voynich Manuscript is still one of the world’s most compelling puzzles.
Sources:
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. (n.d.). Voynich Manuscript Digital Archive. Yale University. https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/voynich-manuscript
HolyBooks. (n.d.). Voynich Manuscript PDF. https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Voynich-Manuscript.pdf
Kennedy, G., & Churchill, R. (2004). The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma. Orion Books.
Montemurro, M. A., & Zanette, D. H. (2013). Entropy and the Voynich Manuscript. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066324
The New Yorker. (2013). The Unread: The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript.
Ars Technica. (2020). AI Hasn’t Cracked the Voynich Manuscript—Here’s Why.
#VoynichManuscript #LinguisticMysteries #Cryptography #HistoryFacts #UnsolvedMysteries #DailyFacts #DidYouKnow #voynich #codebreaking Music thanks to Zapsplat.
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By GordyWhat do you do with a book no one can read?
In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy unpacks the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript—a 600-year-old book filled with unknown script, impossible illustrations, and strange zodiac charts that have defied every attempt at decryption.
Discovered by rare book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, this artifact has since become the world’s most famous undeciphered manuscript. Experts from Alan Turing’s colleagues to modern AI models have tried to crack the code—but so far, it remains unsolved. It’s written in an unknown constructed language with statistically valid patterns—but with no clear meaning.
The Voynich Manuscript has been speculated to be a medieval hoax, a coded scientific treatise, or even a women’s health manual—but its real purpose, origin, and meaning remain unknown.
From Zipf’s Law to linguistic entropy, from naked women in green tubs to astrological wheels, this episode explores what we do know about this strange book—and why the mystery might be exactly the point.
Watch to see why the Voynich Manuscript is still one of the world’s most compelling puzzles.
Sources:
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. (n.d.). Voynich Manuscript Digital Archive. Yale University. https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/voynich-manuscript
HolyBooks. (n.d.). Voynich Manuscript PDF. https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Voynich-Manuscript.pdf
Kennedy, G., & Churchill, R. (2004). The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma. Orion Books.
Montemurro, M. A., & Zanette, D. H. (2013). Entropy and the Voynich Manuscript. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066324
The New Yorker. (2013). The Unread: The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript.
Ars Technica. (2020). AI Hasn’t Cracked the Voynich Manuscript—Here’s Why.
#VoynichManuscript #LinguisticMysteries #Cryptography #HistoryFacts #UnsolvedMysteries #DailyFacts #DidYouKnow #voynich #codebreaking Music thanks to Zapsplat.