false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181177494m/1122720.jpg 1122720 2 A compulsively readable account of the most mysterious manuscript in the world, one that has stumped the world&#8217;s greatest scholars and codebreakers.<b><br></b><br>The Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious tome discovered in 1912 by the English book dealer Wilfrid Michael Voynich, has puzzled scholars for a century. A small six inches by nine inches, but over two hundred pages long, with odd illustrations of plants, astrological diagrams, and naked women, it is written in so indecipherable a language and contains so complicated a code that mathematicians, book collectors, linguists, and historians alike have yet to solve the mysteries contained within. However, in <i>The Friar and the Cipher</i>, the acclaimed bibliophiles and historians Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone describe, in fascinating detail, the theory that Roger Bacon, the noted thirteenth-century, pre-Copernican astronomer, was its author and that the perplexing alphabet was written in his hand. Along the way, they explain the many proposed solutions that scholars have put forth and the myriad attempts at labeling the manuscript's content, from Latin or Greek shorthand to Arabic numerals to ancient Ukrainian to a recipe for the elixir of life to good old-fashioned gibberish. As we journey across centuries, languages, and countries, we meet a cast of impassioned characters and case-crackers, including, of course, Bacon, whose own personal scientific contributions, Voynich author or not, were literally and figuratively astronomical.<br><br><i>The Friar and the Cipher</i> is a wonderfully entertaining and historically wide-ranging book that is one part <i>The Code Book</i>, one part <i>Possession</i>, and one part <i>The Da Vinci Code</i>&#8212;and will appeal to bibliophiles and laypeople alike. 1109807 15 2 2005 The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World total:48|5:7|4:15|3:21|2:5|1:0| 48 168 106 7 2 0 false false Mon Dec 19 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Tue Jul 22 16:31:44 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 22 16:32:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jul 05 17:31:11 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 17:34:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Nov 21 19:17:54 -0800 2008 Fri Jun 19 05:01:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Mar 04 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 12:28:51 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 20:39:55 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Fri Dec 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 17:58:34 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 19 10:57:26 -0800 2008 one 3 0 false false Sun Mar 18 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 06 10:12:08 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 06 10:13:56 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Mon Oct 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 16:27:16 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 09:55:24 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 23 09:01:52 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 23 09:01:52 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 21 14:52:43 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 14:52:43 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 21 14:49:55 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 14:49:55 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 03 21:39:28 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 21:39:28 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 09 10:30:20 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 10:30:20 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Sep 28 15:03:27 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 15:03:34 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Oct 23 14:07:47 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 15:01:13 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 14:07:47 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Sep 11 13:49:15 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 13:49:15 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Sep 10 08:30:04 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 08:31:45 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Aug 29 19:39:23 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 19:39:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Aug 06 09:16:33 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 09:16:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 24 02:35:23 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 02:35:23 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jul 14 18:21:30 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 18:21:30 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1122720