The Voynich manuscript was discovered in an Italian monastery in 1912 but its meaning has eluded experts and code-breakers alike.
This film explores the various theories surrounding its mixture of strange language and drawings of plants and anatomical figures. Is it an astrological guide, herbal glossary, religious heresy or map of the galaxy? No one knows.
DIRECTOR INTERVIEW
BBC Four: Why do you think the manuscript continues to fascinate so many people?
Lucy Sandys-Winsch: Because it hasn't been solved! It's one of those things that appeals to people who like those pictographic puzzles. The top cryptographic minds have been trying to crack it for last century. No one's done it and yet it but it looks doable.
BBC Four: As well as the professional cryptographers there are amateurs in the film with some fairly crackpot theories. Were there any you came across you felt couldn't be included in the film?
L S-W: We have seven or eight people in the film, but yes, there are loads more. One woman in France thinks it's Middle High German mirror writing, which it isn't, but she's convinced of that. Another person thinks it's Ukrainian and talks about a medieval civil war.
BBC Four: But you do show a theory about UFOs...
L S-W: We wanted to show the breadth of opinion the manuscript attracted and Big Tim's opinion is quite interesting [that the manuscript contains a map of our galaxy]. He's not alone in thinking that.
BBC Four: Is there one theory that you personally found most convincing?
L S-W: I think the claim that it's a medieval herbal really stands up - the fact that the pictures are largely of plants. What's puzzling about that is why is it written in code when herbs are not that controversial. But it could be hidden recipes for medicines or alchemical treatments based on a dead language or strange dialect that we no longer know.
BBC Four: The character of Wilfrid Voynich himself is very important to the film. What do you think he adds to the story as whole?
L S-W: No one quite knows what Voynich got up to. He had an antiquarian bookshop; he was certainly involved politically. We don't know if he was involved in any more dodgy stuff - we can only allude to it. But he obviously had a very colourful life and the manuscript filled a large part of it. He was desperate to sell it and have it cracked. Voynich was convinced that the monk, Roger Bacon, wrote it and had that been the case it would have been groundbreaking.
BBC Four: Finally, do you think it will be cracked?
L S-W: Everyone says that it looks easy. Even when I was finishing the film off I thought, "I can see something there". After a four-month slog making the film I was still feeling that. I think it probably will be cracked. I don't believe it's nonsense and a load of gobbledegook - I think it's code based on an unusual or dead dialect or language. Once we've identified what language it is then it will be cracked. And it will be a herbal!
