Part II (chapters 4-10) lays the groundwork for the authors’ case that the work is of Mesoamerican origins, including analyses of the plant and mineral iconography, identification of animals, and other more speculative stretches of the imagination in map interpretation, astrological illustrations, and other details. Part I (chapters 1-3) introduces the reader to the Voynich Codex and its origins and provides a possible historical context for the codex in Aztec Mexico and Catholic Spain. The 412-page Unraveling the Voynich Codex is divided into four parts. Tucker and Janick admit that their assertions are speculative and that they lack academic expertise in linguistics and astronomy, yet believe that their postulations are plausible. Unraveling the Voynich Codex lays the foundation for the hypothesis that the codex was created after the European colonization of the American continents, based on hard evidence of plant, animal, and mineral identifications and the previous work of other “Voynichologists.” According to Tucker and Janick, the botanical illustrations, in their crude, two-dimensional depictions, show plants native to the Americas and are comparable in style to those found in the Badianus Manuscript from 1552, titled Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis (“Little Book of the Medicinal Herbs of the Indians” see HerbalGram issue 27 5). 4 The collaboration between Janick and Tucker resulted in further plant and animal identifications, and speculative-though-plausible assumptions led them to hypothesize that the Voynich Codex is of 16th-century origin from New Spain, and, ultimately, to the publication of the two books reviewed here. 3 The article “proved a revelation to Janick, who had minor contact with the Voynich Codex” up until that time. Their original, peer-reviewed article, “A Preliminary Analysis of the Botany, Zoology, and Mineralogy of the Voynich Manuscript,” was published in HerbalGram’s 100th issue in 2013. Talbert in which they identified 37 plants, seven animals, and the mineral boleite, all of which are of Mesoamerican origin. This led to a collaboration between Tucker and herb expert and former NASA information technologist Rexford H. He observed incorrect plant species identifications by non-botanists in several works pertaining to the manuscript. In the foreword of Unraveling the Voynich Codex, the authors explain that Tucker became interested in the Voynich Codex in June 2012 while studying Latin American herbs and 16th-century codices from New Spain. A full-size reproduction, including the foldout folios, was published in 2016 by Yale University Press, with accompanying interpretive chapters by various specialists. Kraus offered it for $160,000, but with no takers, he donated it to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in 1969, where today the work known as “Beinecke MS 408” has a permanent home. She sold it to famed antiquarian book dealer, H.P. He bequeathed it to his wife, Ethel Voynich, and when she died in 1960, Anne Nill, a longtime Voynich associate in the antiquarian book business, inherited the manuscript. He understood the uniqueness of the manuscript and held onto it until his death in 1930, unable to obtain his asking price of $100,000.
Polish-born antiquarian book dealer Wilfrid Voynich (1865-1930) purchased the codex that bears his name in a lot of manuscripts from a Jesuit order in 1912.
1 The two texts add to the layers of mystery and controversy swirling around the authorship, origins, and content of what has been referred to as the world’s most enigmatic manuscript: the Voynich Codex. Tucker, PhD (1945-2019), professor emeritus at Delaware State University. Unraveling the Voynich Codex and Flora of the Voynich Codex: An Exploration of Aztec Plants were published in 20, respectively, and both were co-authored by Jules Janick, PhD, the James Troop Distinguished Professor of Horticulture at Purdue University, and the late Arthur O. $219.99.Ī review of two recent books that present a detailed case for unraveling the origins and floristic genesis of the Voynich Codex is the type of book review that itself could become a book. $54.99.įlora of the Voynich Codex: An Exploration of Aztec Plants by Arthur O. Unraveling the Voynich Codex by Jules Janick and Arthur O.
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