Lisa kindly permitted me to post this. Most users will already be very familiar with the information she will be presenting. However, those who are new to the Voynich Manuscript and/or new to this site will no doubt find this an excellent introduction.
Click You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view. to open this event in the You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view..
Registration Link: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
Wellesley College event page (scroll to this event): You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view.
Secret Code, Lost Language, Nonsense, or Hoax: The Voynich Manuscript's Enduring Mysteries
Oct 18, 4:30–6 PM
Onsite: Newhouse Lounge
Online: Zoom
Free and open to the public (please be sure to register)
Per the event page:
"The Voynich Manuscript (Beinecke Library MS 408) has been called The World's Most Mysterious Manuscript, and for good reason. Written entirely in an otherwise-unattested set of symbols and illustrated with unidentifiable plants, uninterpretable astrological diagrams, and astonishing biological drawings, the Voynich Manuscript (named for bookdealer Wilfrid Voynich) has intrigued, mystified, and frustrated linguists and cryptologists worldwide for centuries. Is it a code? A lost language? Does it have meaning at all? Or is it a hoax perpetrated on the world by a fifteenth-century prankster or modern forger? What do we know, and what do we have yet to learn? In this lecture, Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis, one of the foremost experts on the manuscript, will describe the manuscript's history, walk through its contents, and explain current theories and research methodologies.
Lisa Fagin Davis received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University in 1993 and has catalogued medieval manuscript collections at Wellesley, Tufts, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, the Walters Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Boston Public Library, and several private collections. She has taught Latin Paleography at Yale University and Rare Book School (Charlottesville) and regularly teaches an introduction to Manuscript Studies at the Simmons University School of Library and Information Science. She was elected to the Comité international de paléographie latine in 2019 and has served as Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America since 2013."