The Voynich manuscript

A couple of crypto-freak friends of mine got into a heated argument about the Voynich manuscript. I kept my mouth shut and just watched in morbid fascination.
For a moment there, it got ugly.
I thought they were going to whip out their notebooks and see who had the longer calculus equation.

The Voynich Manuscript is one of the big mysteries in the world of cryptology. Most experts agree that it was written in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, or maybe the thriteenth, in a code that has remained unbroken to this day.
Most of those same experts say it's germanic in origin, with a few loud ones certain that it is Italian; and the handwriting guys all say that it was written by two different people.

A medieval boob blogger.

It does provide some interesting text...

A guy named Gabriel Landini worked at deciphering the text. He produced a modern Roman alphabet transcription.
This is a nice representative sample. Go ahead, give it a shot.
If you can decipher the Voynich, you've made your codebreaker reputation forever.

fachys.ykal.ar.ataiin.shol.shory.cthres.ykor.sholdy
sory.cthar.or.y.kair.chtaiin.shar.are.cthar.cthar.dan
syaiir.sheky.or.ykaiin.shod.cthoary.cthes.daraiin.sa
o'oiin.okeey.oteor.roloty.cth*ar.daiin.otaiin.or.okan
sair.y.chear.cthaiin.cphar.cfhaiin - ydaraishy


Some links here:
The actual manuscript is stored at the Bienecke Library at Yale, start browsing through the images of all the pages and you'll be hooked for life.

I've also found a link to a chemical analysis of the ink and vellum of the manuscript.

Here's one of the best crypto-freak blogs out there.