Mysterious and still unreadable Voynich manuscript appears to be at least partly about ‘the secrets of women’

A mysterious medieval manuscript that researchers have been trying to read for decades but still has not deciphered appears to have finally revealed a secret. In a new study, researchers suggest that it is at least partly about women’s (sexual) secrets.

In 1912, bookseller Wilfred Voynich discovered a manuscript among a number of old Jesuit documents. Voynich tries to read the manuscript, which is full of drawings and texts. But he can’t do that. A mystery is born. Following Voynich, countless cryptologists, linguists, astronomers, computer programs and even secret services are also trying to decipher the manuscript. But without result.

About the manuscript
It is therefore unclear what exactly the manuscript is about. Researchers are unable to decipher the text. And the many drawings in the manuscript – including plants or parts of plants, women and astronomical or astrological diagrams – provide little clarity about the content of the text. But in recent decades, through research, we have learned other things about the manuscript. We now know almost certainly that the parchment on which it is written dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century. And drawings in the manuscript – including an image of the zodiac – hint that it was written in northern Italy or southern Germany.

Content
All very interesting of course. But the main question remains what is in the manuscript. In a new study, published in the journal Social History of Medicine Scientists now think they can provide a glimpse of the mystery. According to them, the manuscript is at least partly about…sex.

The research
The researchers drew this conclusion after looking at a part of the manuscript that has not yet been extensively researched. It concerns the part with hundreds of images of women. These women are almost all depicted naked or topless. “Such images seem a bit out of place if the manuscript were mainly about astrology, alchemy or herbalism,” the researchers write. “These images, which have been largely ignored or downplayed, require new examination of the manuscript through the lens of the late medieval science of sex and gynecology, which (at the time, ed.) was also referred to as ‘the secrets of women’.”

Johannes Hartlieb
To do this, the researchers turn to the work of doctor Johannes Hartlieb. He was the general practitioner of the Duke of Bavaria-Munich in the fifteenth century and therefore lived not only at the time when the Voynich manuscript was written, but also in the region in which it probably took place. At the same time, he cannot be the author, the researchers emphasize. The fact that Hartlieb can help us to better understand the manuscript has everything to do with his field and work. The GP liked to write, and in particular about plants, women, magic and astrology: subjects that the Voynich manuscript – judging by the drawings in it – also seems to deal with. And by examining how he viewed those subjects – and women in particular – we may be able to better understand the Voynich manuscript – or at least the part that is full of images of (almost) naked women, the researchers reason. .

Plea for secrecy
And when we look at Hartlieb’s work, we see first of all that the secrets of women – a term used at the time to refer to the sexual and reproductive functions of women – terrified him. Hartlieb was particularly afraid that by writing about it he would contribute to its spread and would subsequently be punished by God. In one of his works he noted that writing about women’s secrets – think of matters such as abortion and contraception – should actually always be done in secret. It is unclear whether he actually developed and used it. But if it ever happened, he could not have put it into use until decades after the Voynich manuscript saw the light of day. Hence the researchers quite categorically note that he cannot be the Voynich author.

Secret must remain secret
But Hartlieb’s work can help us understand how the late medieval man viewed ‘the secrets of women’. And what is particularly striking is that Hartlieb seemed quite keen to keep those secrets secret. And he wasn’t alone at that time; the researchers looked at many more texts from the late Middle Ages in which writers seemed to censor themselves, as it were, and often prematurely terminated texts about women’s sex lives, the female genitals and their functioning. For example, the researchers cite a text that extensively discusses the development of an embryo and childbirth, but the author says he consciously chooses not to describe the female genitals, “because it is so embarrassing”. And writers who did write openly about ‘women’s secrets’ were often censored afterwards by their readers or editor. As an example, the researchers cite a medical manuscript from the fourteenth century that contains a prescription for a contraceptive and a prescription for a drug that would actually increase the chance of conception. The latter recipe has been left untouched, but in the first recipe the most important ingredient has been crossed out.

If we look at the Voynich manuscript with that in mind, we can perhaps better understand why its author – at least in the part full of (almost) naked women – opts for secret writing. “We believe that the authors of the manuscript – like Hartlieb – felt a mix of passionate fascination and abject horror when it comes to taboo topics that fall under the rubric of ‘women’s secrets,’” the researchers said.

The images
The researchers deduce from an extensive analysis of the – as yet little explored – images that the part of the Voynich manuscript that is full of images of (almost) naked women is really about the secrets of women. “There are illustrations of women holding objects next to or towards their genitals, apparently with the intention of inserting them into their bodies,” researcher Keagan Brewer tells Scientias.nl. “And one woman is holding an object that has a wide flared handle, something that appears to be intended to prevent the object from becoming stuck in her body.”

Rosettes
But such erotic images are not the only indication that the Voynich author carefully ventures to record the secrets of women in this part of the manuscript. The researchers also looked extensively at one of the largest images in the manuscript: the Rosettes. It is a huge image that is about 46 centimeters high and 48 centimeters wide and consists of nine interconnected circles. In the past, researchers have struggled to understand the Rosettes; Hypotheses regarding the meaning of the image range from a map of northern Italy or central Mexico, to a tree of life describing the creation of the universe or possibly even an escape route during a volcanic eruption. Brewer and colleagues have now taken another look at the image and argue that it is a kind of disguised representation of sexual intercourse and conception. They base this conclusion on a careful analysis of the image and medieval texts in which authors dared to openly record their ideas about the female genitals. These texts show, among other things, that in the Middle Ages it was thought that the uterus had seven chambers and the vagina had two openings. The Rosettes illustration – which consists of nine large circles – would be a schematic representation of this. This is further supported by five tubes protruding from one of the Rosettes circles; which would refer to the five small veins that, according to medieval physicians, could be found in the vagina of virgins. We also see the idea that the uterus had two spines recurring in the Rosettes; the circles at the top right and bottom right have such a spike.

In addition, the medieval belief that babies were created from two sperm cells – one from the father and one from the mother – is also incorporated into the drawing. These sperm cells are shown in blue (from the mother) and yellow (from the father). In addition, the idea that sunlight helps the sperm to develop into an embryo would also have been included in the image; A sun is drawn at the top left and bottom right.

Pun
And in the packed image, room has also been made for a pun, perhaps intended as a clue to help the unknowing reader/viewer to decipher the disguised explanation about sex and conception. A walled castle has also been drawn in the Rosettes. “The presence of a castle and city wall requires some explanation,” the researchers realize in their study. “What do castles do in a scientific representation of intercourse and conception?” The researchers think they know; it is a pun on the German term ‘schloss’, a word that meant castle or castle, but was also used to indicate the female genitals.

The rest of the manuscript
And so the Voynich manuscript seems to be at least partly about women’s secrets. It is still unclear whether other parts of the manuscript will also be seen in a different light. “We don’t think the entire manuscript is about women’s secrets,” says Brewer. “For example, it seems unlikely that the many plants mentioned in the manuscript are all related to it. But we have not yet investigated exactly how many plants were available for use for reproduction and genital health.”

Prelude to more
Brewer and colleagues see their study mainly as a prelude to more. For example, they argue for more research into the work of physicians and pharmacists who were active in southern Germany or northern Italy in the first half of the fifteenth century. A better understanding of their beliefs may help us to better understand and perhaps even decipher the manuscript.

Brewer also hopes that the new and extremely serious research into the Voynich manuscript will change our view of the work forever. “I especially hope that our study will once and for all put to rest a wide range of theories that do not make sense and keep people much more occupied than they should. Then consider the theory that the manuscript is a hoax, the theory that it came from aliens or originated in Mexico, etc. It’s time to let go of those ideas.” And instead, further explore the more serious hypotheses surrounding the manuscript – as Brewer and colleagues now present in their study, for example. A leading role in this is reserved for historians, Brewer emphasizes. But they are often a bit hesitant when it comes to the Voynich manuscript. “Precisely because it has an undeserved reputation as a document for ‘crazies’,” says Brewer. “And that is unfair to the manuscript and to the many intelligent and passionate non-historians who have been researching it for decades.” And not only that; it also puts us in a kind of vicious circle, where the lack of specialist research into the Voynich manuscript leads to even more wild ideas or at least helps to perpetuate them, further reducing the chance that scientists will take a serious look at it. “And we now hope to break that negative vicious circle.”