Cipher Mysteries

Just to let you know that a Voynich Manuscript radio interview I gave a few days ago (either download it, or click on the Flash Player play button [half a screen down on the right] to hear it) has just gone live on the Red Ice Creations website. They wanted me to chat about all things ...

Though (as was apparent from the rapid social media take-up of yesterday's XKCD webcomic) the Voynich Manuscript is now firmly wedged in the cultural mind, sadly the level of debate on it is still stuck circa 1977 - and if anything, Gordon Rugg's foolish "hoax" claims have helped to keep it there. But it is demonstrably written ...

Rene Zandbergen recently commented that much of the codicological reasoning presented on my Voynich codicology page fails to satisfactorily differentiate between observation, hypothesis, reasoning, and fact. At the same time, Glen Claston has also set about trying to pin down key facts about the Voynich Manuscript's codicology (though taking his own angle on the evidence): while I have ...

Hi everyone, Just to let you all know that my email address for the next few days will be nickpelling@lavabit.com - my nickpelling.com domain is undergoing temporary maintenance (i.e. it's broken). Apologies for any bounced emails etc. Oh well! :-o Cheers, ....Nick Pelling....

[Here's a guest posting from my friend, the well-known Voynich contrarian Glen Claston. Though he originally intended it as a comment to my recent post on Voynich Manuscript Quire 8 [Q8], it actually deserved a whole post to itself. I've lightly edited it to house style, and added a couple of pictures.] Nick asked me to look at the blog, ...

I recently bumped into a "Random Freebie" from blogger "Miss Black Pepper": apropos of nothing much, she posted up a Voynich Manuscript Scrabble Tile Set, composed of nice little images clipped from the Voynich Manuscript (which she happens to rather like). Of course, this set me wondering what a real Voynich Scrabble would look like. You see, the most appalling thing ...

Edith Sherwood, everyone's favourite Leonardo-wrote-the-Voynich-so-he-did theorist, has posted up an extensive (and fascinating) new article focusing mainly on the depictions of the sun, moon and stars in the Voynich Manuscript: the starting point of her journey is the striking similarity between suns and moons in the VMs' "astronomical" Quire 9 and a sun/moon pair on a particular Afro-Portuguese ivory horn (#101) carved between 1495 ...

I suppose this is the review I've spent two years steeling myself for. No matter what book critics may say, reviewing other people's books is an easy word-game to play (typically revolving around inserting themselves into the commentary): whereas putting your own writing under the same spotlight is something closer to therapy. What, with the benefit of hindsight, do I now make ...

Following on from my September 2008 article in History Today, I've just posted up an online Juan Roget bibliography listing the current set of primary, secondary, and tertiary references to Girolamo Sirtori's claim to have met the "first inventor" of the telescope in Gerona. While my article received a lot of positive attention from the Spanish media (which was nice, ...

Could the world ever really be ready for my enciphered sexy Jewish limerick? Having mulled over the punchline for this for a couple of months, I think I've finally nailed it. Happy deciphering! :-) A randy professor from Haifa Wrote all his love letters in cipher "Ven I look in your eyes," He would rhapsodize, "J'n tdiuvqqjoh uif lojti pgg Njdifmmf Qgfjggfs!"