# The Voynich Manuscript

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-voynich-manuscript/125577>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [August 26, 2002, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-voynich-manuscript/125577 "2002-08-26T05:14:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-voynich-manuscript/125577/1 "2002-08-26T05:14:11Z")

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[The Voynich Manuscript](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/voynich.html)

Many of the links on that web page no longer work(see bottom of page).

This is interesting & strange!😕 😃

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**Author:** ![grey\_ideas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@grey\_ideas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grey_ideas)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-voynich-manuscript/125577/2 "2002-08-26T06:32:50Z")

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Fogmage,

Very strange indeed! One of my supervisors during my postgraduate studies was heavily involved in working on the Voynich Manuscript.

After having a look at a couple of his papers on it I decided that my brain was already struggling quite well enough with my own work thank you very much! 😃

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-voynich-manuscript/125577/3 "2002-08-26T11:38:35Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> It contains pictures of various things including plants, stars, and most strangely of all, nude maidens bathing in what looks like some very elaborate plumbing:

Aha! There’s the answer. This is clearly a draft manuscript for Dr. Seuss’ **Happy Birthday to You**.

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**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-voynich-manuscript/125577/4 "2002-08-26T12:33:41Z")

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Funny you should mention that, because I remember as a child feeling oddly disturbed by the idea of that little kid bathing naked with the big goofy bird thing.

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**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-voynich-manuscript/125577/5 "2002-08-26T13:51:21Z")

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I remember having read that the most likely explanation was that the manuscript has been written deliberatly to appear mysterious in order to sell it for a good price to a guillible lover of arcane lore (the emperor Rudolf). That explanation makes a lot of sense to me.