‘World’s most mysterious manuscript’ could finally be decoded after 500 years

It’s been described as the most mysterious manuscript on Earth, written in an unknown language and script, and showing images of strange, ‘alien’ plant species.

But the Voynich Manuscript – which has resisted all attempts to decode it – could be about to yield up its secrets.

Computer scientists used statistical translation software to unravel the first sentence of the Voynich Manuscript, which features in the Indiana Jones films.

Researchers led by Greg Kondrak of the University of Alberta now believe it’s written in Hebrew, in a code which involves removing vowels and shuffling consonants.

The Bletchley Park team who deciphered the Nazi Enigma code tried and failed to decipher the Voynich – along with dozens of other leading code-breakers.

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Kondrak used translation software previously tested on the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and believes the first sentence says, ‘She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and people.’

Kondrak said, ‘It came up with a sentence that is grammatical, and you can interpret it. It’s a kind of strange sentence to start a manuscript but it definitely makes sense.’

Kondrak says that the statistical software is 97% accurate, and that 80% of the words appear to be in Hebrew.

In the first section, the software also picked out words such as ‘farmer,’ ‘light’ and ‘air’.

Now Kondrak says that experts in ancient Hebrew may be able to make sense of the manuscript.

Kondrak said, ‘Somebody with very good knowledge of Hebrew and who’s a historian at the same time could take this evidence and follow this kind of clue.’