The manuscript, filled with botanical drawings, astronomical diagrams, pictures of nude women and indecipherable text known as Voynichese, has defied cryptographers and codebreakers for centuries. Claimed at various times to be a lost language, a musical score, an instruction manual or an elaborate hoax, its true meaning has remained elusive.
In the new article, Colin Layfield and Lisa Fagin Davis argue that the manuscript's folded sheets were originally piled on top of each other as "singulions" (like a stack of Christmas cards), but were mis-bound in a more typical nested arrangement at some point in the mid to late 15th century. While the finding does not immediately decode the script, it radically changes the understanding of the manuscript's function.
"The evidence suggests we're talking about a more communal object, perhaps a set of booklets through which information was passed down from one generation to the next," Davis said. "The 'lone genius' idea is kind of out of the door."
The manuscript's unknown provenance has intrigued scholars ever since it surfaced in the 17th century. It was bought in 1912 by Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish revolutionary and book dealer.