Mysterious naked ladies
SCIENTISTS have been looking again at the "Voynich Book", a mysterious "mediaeval" manuscript that makes no sense at all and might or might not be a hoax.
The only intelligible part of the manuscript is the pictures of naked women bathing – not bad at all – but the rest of the 240 pages consists of mysterious drawings of unknown plants, bizarre astronomical patterns and reams of what looks like gibberish in an unknown alphabet.
The meaning has eluded cryptographers, mathematicians and linguists for more than a century. The codebreakers of World War II even had a try but failed to crack it.
Whatever could it be? Something extra-terrestrial? But no – those naked ladies look very much homegrown.
The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish dealer in antique books who bought it in Italy in 1912, where it was among a lot of second-hand publications.
Inside the book was a letter, thought to be dated to 1666, which claimed the book once belonged to Emperor Rudolf II, a member of the house of Habsburg known to have been a patron of the arts and science.
Many believed the manuscript to have been written as a hoax for financial gain by Edward Kelley, a known con artist who did such things in the mid-1500s, but radiocarbon dating now rules him out. The book is very much older.
It's a bit like the prolonged gibberish sometimes spat out by a computer. But they didn't have computers in the Middle Ages; they had monks writing slowly and deliberately on calfskin parchment. Somebody went to a great deal of trouble.
Now a new study suggests the manuscript may hold a genuine message. British scientists say they have found linguistic patterns they believe to be meaningful words. Marcelo Montemurro, a theoretical physicist at the University of Manchester, has spent years analysing the manuscript's linguistic patterns and says he hopes to unravel the mystery.
"The text is unique, there are no similar works and all attempts to decode any possible message in the text have failed. It's not easy to dismiss the manuscript as simple nonsensical gibberish, as it shows a significant linguistic structure."
Tantalising stuff. What are those naked ladies trying to tell us? What are naked ladies anywhere trying to tell us? Watch this space!
Local cryptology
THE ABOVE recalls a similar feat of cryptology right here in Durban. An ancient piece of ceramic pottery was found on the Bluff.
It bore a baffling legend in strange characters, in no known language. It seemed to say: "Itisa cham berp otan dabi gun."
Whatever could this mean? Had the ancient Phoeniceans been here in unrecorded history? The Polynesians perhaps? The ancient Chinese?
The university folk ran it through their computers. Linguistic patterns emerged. Gradually they pieced together the puzzle.
Voila! "It is a chamber pot and a big 'un!"
The University of Manchester would do well to connect with our local expertise.
Driving cattle
NEWS from the Eastern Cape. Smelly Fellows, my old musician mate, passes on some lines from Sid Penney, who runs a B&B in Grahamstown.
"We had a report that some of the Nguni cattle herd from the farm just past Beavers have gone walkabout, and would seem to be headed for the R72, which could cause havoc with the traffic.
"So we phoned the municipality and were told by the fireman who answered that everyone was off for lunch. After a bit of convincing, he put me through to the Traffic Department.
"Having explained the situation to the pleasant police lady, she proceeded to ask me what type of car the cattle were driving, which I have to admit left me a little speechless."
Yes, these Ngunis are a menace behind the wheel.
Knickers nicked
OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-Forties: Some swine pinched a pair of my wife's knickers off the clothesline. We're not so fussed about the knickers but we would like to get back the 12 clothespegs."
Tailpiece
"I'VE BEEN reading this feminist website. It says there's soon to be a dawning of 'The Age of Women.'"
"Sorry to have to break it to you, Honey. There's already been an Iron Age."
Last word
Any fool can criticise, condemn, and complain - and most fools do.
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