- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Orion; New edition edition (3 Feb 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 075286422X
- ISBN-13: 978-0752864228
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 589,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'A fascinating examination of the latest theories concerning the manuscript' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )
'The clashing interpretations are aired ably and open-mindedly and the books includes plenty of mesmerising images from the enigmatic codex.' (GUARDIAN )
'The clashing interpretations are aired ably and open-mindedly and the books includes plenty of mesmerising images from the enigmatic codex.' (GUARDIAN )
GUARDIAN
'The clashing interpretations are aired ably and open-mindedly and the books includes plenty of mesmerising images from the enigmatic codex.'
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First Sentence
Just as with the provenance of his manuscript, a certain murkiness surrounds Wilfrid Voynich's origins. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Just as with the provenance of his manuscript, a certain murkiness surrounds Wilfrid Voynich's origins. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Kennedy & Churchill's "The Voynich Manuscript" is much more than a book simply about one subject: it is a modern treatise on a rich seam of phenomena and the range of eccentric, occult and devious characters throughout European history who have shaped them.
On the surface, it is a book about one subject: the (likely mediaeval) manuscript written in code (its various sections illustrated with pictures of plants, astronomy, naked dancing nymphs and unintelligible symbology) that has defied attempts at deciphering, from the early students of occult and mystical languages through to the modern cipher-breakers of wartime Europe. It also builds up a chronologically formatted story of the Manuscript from its first appearance in records to its current whereabouts.
In the quest to discover who might have written the manuscript, why they wrote it, and ultimately to decipher its message, Churchill & Kennedy manage to create a cyclopedia of information, a Fortean who's-who of strange people and what's-what of strange phenomena, all who may have been connected in some way with the manuscript, or knowledge of which might assist them in their understanding of it.
Thus we travel through the ages learning about various people and various phenomena, including the life and works of characters such as Roger Bacon, Dr John Dee, St Hildegard and Voynich himself; and in the process discovering the Shakers and the spirit-world, magic and mediaeval science, how migraines work, how codes and ciphers work, and so on, and on ...
How the authors managed to get so much information, interestingly written and clearly explained, in one 300 page volume is a mystery almost as great as the one they are researching.
It's certainly one of the most interesting reads I've had of late and thoroughly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
... if its end covers had survived we might be the wiser. A useful and well-written introduction to the mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript, but not by any means the definitive account which some of us had been hoping for. Most of the obvious bases are touched: the beautiful but incomprehensible script with its unnatural absence of mistakes, the weird illustrations with their plumbing diagrams infested with little naked ladies, the various possibilities of forgery. The authors have found out more than I previously knew about the secretive book dealer Voynich, but he remains an enigmatic character; he certainly had the opportunity and technical knowledge to fake the manuscript, but what a lot of work it would have taken, and to what end? As it was, it cost him much time and trouble and he never made a dollar out of it.
The book perhaps suffers slightly from its British authorship. Although most of the key players in the modern history of the manuscript have been American, few living experts seem to have been interviewed in person. Missing particularly is any discussion of the sustained and puzzling interest in the manuscript by agencies of the American Government; the Voynich internet group was at one time subsidized by the RAND Corporation, a defence think tank with Pentagon links, while the doctoral thesis of Mary d'Imperio, probably the leading expert on the manuscript, was commissioned by the National Security Agency. One wonders what they think it might contain. Also, I'm not sure the authors understand the full importance of the entropy calculations, which prove that the text is not just random doodles but contains meaningful information, even though we cannot decipher it. But read the book anyway and, like so many other newcomers to the Voynich Manuscript, you will be hooked for life.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a well written book that begins to unravel some of the mystery that surrounds the Voynich Manuscipt. It is both accessible for complete beginners and also would be of interest for those who are more familiar with the most mysterious of all manuscript. Churchill and Kennedy chart an interesting history of the manuscript from its discovery to modern day interpretations, although they are wise to avoid the temptation of former scholars to attaempt to actually translate the work.
This is popular history at its most intriguing and informative... although from time to time one wonders whether this is the correct format. However I am probably being over-snobbish here.
Highly recommended!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Solid, even-handed introduction
Anyone seriously interested in the Voynich manuscript should undoubtedly inform themselves of the avenues that have been explored over the century or so since its (re)discovery. Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2009 by M. HARRISON Colin
Fascinating
The riddle of the Voynich Manuscript may never be solved, but this book tells the fascinating story of how it was unearthed early in the 20th century and what has happened to it... Read more
Published on 28 April 2005 by R. P. Sedgwick
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