The Voynich Manuscript is one of the most obsessed-over historical enigmas. A medieval book dating from the late 15th or 16th century, its strange, flowing script has never been deciphered, its origins never determined. The 113 plant illustrations it contains seem to depict no flora found on Earth, and throughout its vellum pages are visuals of the cosmos, a small army of naked women cavorting through pools of water, and the arcane alphabet that has so frustrated linguists and cryptographers.

Hi-resolution (2900×3700, JPG, TIFF) scans of the Voynich manuscript from The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.


The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is one of the world's largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts and is Yale's principal repository for literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books. The Beinecke Library's robust collections are used to create new scholarship by researchers from around the world.

• The Beinecke Library — Collection Highlights
• Voynich Manuscript page
• A detailed chemical analysis of the Voynich Manuscript (8 p., PDF)

The manuscript’s curious, convoluted history is described in detail on historian René Zandbergen’s website.

Illustrations by Niō Mizushima for a Japanese edition of 'Journey to the West' (c. 1950).