Oh, be still my beating heart!

The Voynich Manuscript - something I had never heard of before today - has almost everything that sends me in paroxysms of joy. An unknown language (or two)? Check. A lovely, indecipherable alphabetic script? Check. Mysterious, fantastic illustrations? Check. Astronomy, cosmology and, perhaps, alchemy? Check. Athanasius Kircher (login: wrreaders)? Check. A possible connection to Roger Bacon? Check. A link to Rudolph II and thus to the semi-mythical, esoteric Prague I first fell in love with through the books of Gustav Meyrink? Check!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing for pointing the way to my new obsession.

Further reading…