THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT IS PARTIALLY WRITTEN

FROM RIGHT TO LEFT

Arturo Tozzi
Center for Nonlinear Science, Department of Physics, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA
1155 Union Circle, #311427Denton, TX 76203-5017 USA
tozziarturo@libero.it
Arturo.Tozzi@unt.edu

Here we show how, based on ink’s visual analysis, that the Voynich manuscript is partially
written from right to left.

A short movie is also available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imqWcbqxAlQ&feature=youtu.be

The Voynich manuscript (Beinecke MS 408) is a mysterious fifteenth-century codex that includes weird illustrations,
such as otherworldly plants, unfamiliar constellations, herbal medicine drawings and enigmatic images of naked women
swimming though fantastical tubes and green baths (Skinner et al., 2017). The manuscript is written by an unknown
author in a particular language and alphabet, a beautiful cryptographic script that nobody has been able to read, despite
several scientific and pseudo-scientific efforts. From the rediscovery in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich, the
book’s language has eluded decipherment and its elaborate illustrations remain as baffling as they are beautiful
(Clemens and Harkness, 2016).
The 240-page manuscript is believed running left to right, with most of the characters composed of one or two simple
pen strokes. The format is one column in the page body, with slightly indented right margin and with paragraph
divisions, and often with stars in the left margin (Shailor). Here we show, based on a visual inspection of the writings
performed on digital reproductions, that the codex is partially written from right to left.

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MATERIALS AND METHODS

The Voynich Manuscrip, aka Beinecke MS 408, is owned since 1969 by Yale University at its Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library. The images of the VMs were converted from MrSID files on the Beinecke Library's server
(Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library): http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/SearchExecXC.asp?
srchtype=CNO
We examined a digital reproduction of the MS 408, available at: http://ixoloxi.com/voynich/pdf/en/vms-quire1-
en.pdf. Although the original Beinecke files are at a higher resolution, the original files were resampled to a 300 dpi
pixel resolution and given a single 80% JPG compression, in order to give reasonable file sizes for printing.
We visually inspected the ink of the cryptographic script, locating the places in which it tends to fade away.

RESULTS

Figure 1 illustrates how and why at least some rows are written from right to left. This intriguing right/left running is
scattered everywhere throughout the whole manuscript (Figure 2).

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated that, contrary to the common belief, at least a part of the script of the Voynich manuscript is written
running from right to left.

REFERENCES

1) Clemens R, Harkness D. 2016. The Voynich Manuscript. Yale Univ Pr. ISBN-13: 978-0300217230
2) Shailor BA. Beinecke MS 408; Beinecke Rare Book And Manuscript Library, General Collection Of Rare
Books And Manuscripts, Medieval And Renaissance Manuscripts. Yale University.
https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/voynich-manuscript.
3) Skinner S, Prinke RT, Zandbergen Rene. 2017. The Voynich Manuscript: The World's Most Mysterious and
Esoteric. Watkins Pub Ltd. SBN-13: 978-1786780775.

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Figure 1. In this magnification, it can be clearly seen that some rows are written from right to left. In the row under
examination, the pen stroke run from right to left: when the ink started to fade, the Author dipped the pen in a novel
amount of ink and continued to write.

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Figure 2. Other examples of Voynich’s writings running from right to left (blue solid arrows). In turn, the most of the
rows run from left to right: the black dotted arrow provides an example.