The problem with the manuscript then, as now, is that nobody could decipher it. The language used throughout the entire manuscript is one that has never been figured out, ever. The person known to have had the book after Rudolph II was his personal physician (?), Jacobus De Tepenecz. There is some speculation as to who this person was to Rudolph. Some say he was in charge of the Bohemian king's gardens, others say he was the king's potion maker. Whatever the case, in the end, De Tepenecz was given the book--along with several others--as payment for his services. The reason scholars know this is because his name was found written, then later removed, on the inside cover. It took the use of an x-ray and black-lights to the see this, but it was found.
The Voynich Manuscript got it's name from Wilfrid Voynich (1865-1930). This young man was a Polish revolutionary and had a love of British and American antiques. Yet he is most famous for owning this book. And though there is a lot of speculation as to who else owned the book between the early 1600s and the mid-20th century, the real question is who wrote it and what does it say. However, there is a lot in this manuscript that tells scholars what it is. There are several pages filled with drawing of various plants, from root to flower. There are also depictions of what are thought to be the Heavens and the Zodiac. But again, this is just a guess made by some of the most brilliant minds in the world.
A few of the people thought to be behind this work of art are Leonardo DaVinci and Roger Bacon who happened to be a 13th century Friar who was known for his love of nature and scholarly demeanor. However, the book has been proven to be far too old to have been the creation of DaVinci, and Bacon has been dismissed outright by most of today's experts.
It's been said by many that the Voynich Manuscript was the work of a single person, and from looking through the entire book, this seems to be true. And though there doesn't seem to be anyone who can decipher it, nearly everyone had put the book as being created sometime in the late 15th century to the early 16th century. However, Yale University, where the book is housed today, allowed experts to do radio carbon tests on 4 different samples of the book. These samples were sent to different labs and all came back with the same results. According to the tests, the pages of this book--all made from animal skin parchment--showed that the age of the parchment was from between 1404 and 1438. However, this just means that is when the animal was alive and not necessarily when the book was made.
The mystery behind the Voynich manuscript doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon, but it does prove to be one of the greatest mysteries of the modern age.
(See the entire manuscript at Wiki Media Commons)
