- Joined
- Jan 26, 2002
- Messages
- 2,737
Found an interesting site:
http://www.archimedes-lab.org
There is a lot of stuff there, and I think one could spend a long time looking at it, so be warned.
Heres a couple of things.
150 pix of different shapes of pasta!
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/pastashape.html
Italians can be as serious about this as the Japanese are about sushi.
Now here is the wierd thing. A folio called the Voynich Mansuscript.
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/atelier.html?http://www.archimedes-lab.org/voynich.html
In 1912, the antiquarian book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich bought a number of mediaeval manuscripts from an undisclosed location in Europe. Among these was a lavishly illustrated manuscript codex of 234 pages, written in an unknown script.
Voynich took the MS to the United States and started a campaign to have it deciphered. Now, almost 100 years later, the Voynich manuscript still stands as probably the most elusive puzzle in the world of cryptography. Not a single word of this 'Most Mysterious Manuscript', written probably in the second half of the 15th Century, can be understood...
The Voynich MS is a book or "codex" which counted at least 116 parchment folios, of which 104 remain. The folio size is 6 by 9 inches, but some folios are two or three times that size and are folded to fit in the book. There is one large composite of six times this size (18 by 18 inches). The MS is written in an elegant, but otherwise unknown script and almost all pages of the MS contain illustrations. It is about 1.5 inches thick and has a blank limp vellum cover that does not contain any indication of age, authorship or origin.
Both the illustrations and the script of the manuscript are unique. As long as the script cannot be read, the illustrations are the only clue about the nature of the book. According to these illustrations, the manuscript would appear to be a scientific book, mostly an illustrated herbal with
some additional sections....
What is commonly called the herbal section fills about half the volume. It consists of page-filling drawings of single plants with short paragraphs of text written beside them. Occasionally, two plants are shown on a single page. The layout is similar to that of traditional illustrated herbals. While some of the drawings do resemble existing plants, most of the drawings would appear to be fantastic compositions.
Following is a section with astronomical and so-called cosmological drawings. The astronomical pages feature drawings of circular design, with images of the sun, the
moon and arrangements of stars. Cosmological drawings have a similar layout but include other more abstract features such as rosettas, tubes and pipes. A section of the astronomical pages (which is usually called the astrological section) has illustrations of the zodiac, surrounded by circles of mostly nude female figures holding stars.
The next apparent section of the manuscript has been called biological as it contains some odd, perhaps anatomical, drawings including pipes and tubes resembling blood vessels, together with human figures, mostly nude females, similar to the ones in the astrological section. There have been suggestions that the illustrations represent medicinal baths.
Following, there are a few more herbal pages and a different section which has been called pharmaceutical, as it includes pictures of labelled containers and many small parts of plants, mainly roots and leaves.
Finally, the manuscript closes with what has been called the recipes section, as it contains many (324) short paragraphs, each with a star in the margin (on average 15 per page).There have been suggestions that this section was some sort of calendar (or almanac), although adding the two missing folios the total number of paragraphs would probably be higher than 360 or 365....
The entire book has been scanned is available at the site of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, where the volume now resides.
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/brbldl/
Search for Voynich to see the scans, they are pretty wierd.
The Voynich manuscript may be the inspiration for "Codex Seraphinianus". Many years ago someone gave me this book. It is probably the strangest book ever published. Here is a link to one of several websites devoted to this profusly illustrated strange tome written entirely in an imaginary or invented script. I am quite astonished to find that my copy of this book is apparently valued at around $250 or more!!
http://www.io.com/~iareth/codindx.html
a less strange than usual pic:
and a scholarly treatise on the work, with a few more pics.
http://faculty.msvu.ca/pschwenger/codex.htm
A search will turn up many websites featuring reproductions of parts of this book. Here's one that has a bit on it's creator, and one of the stranger illustrations from the book:
http://www.almaleh.com/se-auth.htm
Stull cluttering up the Cantina with obscure, useless esoterica.....
http://www.archimedes-lab.org
There is a lot of stuff there, and I think one could spend a long time looking at it, so be warned.
Heres a couple of things.
150 pix of different shapes of pasta!
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/pastashape.html
Italians can be as serious about this as the Japanese are about sushi.
Now here is the wierd thing. A folio called the Voynich Mansuscript.
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/atelier.html?http://www.archimedes-lab.org/voynich.html
In 1912, the antiquarian book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich bought a number of mediaeval manuscripts from an undisclosed location in Europe. Among these was a lavishly illustrated manuscript codex of 234 pages, written in an unknown script.
Voynich took the MS to the United States and started a campaign to have it deciphered. Now, almost 100 years later, the Voynich manuscript still stands as probably the most elusive puzzle in the world of cryptography. Not a single word of this 'Most Mysterious Manuscript', written probably in the second half of the 15th Century, can be understood...
The Voynich MS is a book or "codex" which counted at least 116 parchment folios, of which 104 remain. The folio size is 6 by 9 inches, but some folios are two or three times that size and are folded to fit in the book. There is one large composite of six times this size (18 by 18 inches). The MS is written in an elegant, but otherwise unknown script and almost all pages of the MS contain illustrations. It is about 1.5 inches thick and has a blank limp vellum cover that does not contain any indication of age, authorship or origin.
Both the illustrations and the script of the manuscript are unique. As long as the script cannot be read, the illustrations are the only clue about the nature of the book. According to these illustrations, the manuscript would appear to be a scientific book, mostly an illustrated herbal with
some additional sections....
What is commonly called the herbal section fills about half the volume. It consists of page-filling drawings of single plants with short paragraphs of text written beside them. Occasionally, two plants are shown on a single page. The layout is similar to that of traditional illustrated herbals. While some of the drawings do resemble existing plants, most of the drawings would appear to be fantastic compositions.
Following is a section with astronomical and so-called cosmological drawings. The astronomical pages feature drawings of circular design, with images of the sun, the
moon and arrangements of stars. Cosmological drawings have a similar layout but include other more abstract features such as rosettas, tubes and pipes. A section of the astronomical pages (which is usually called the astrological section) has illustrations of the zodiac, surrounded by circles of mostly nude female figures holding stars.
The next apparent section of the manuscript has been called biological as it contains some odd, perhaps anatomical, drawings including pipes and tubes resembling blood vessels, together with human figures, mostly nude females, similar to the ones in the astrological section. There have been suggestions that the illustrations represent medicinal baths.
Following, there are a few more herbal pages and a different section which has been called pharmaceutical, as it includes pictures of labelled containers and many small parts of plants, mainly roots and leaves.
Finally, the manuscript closes with what has been called the recipes section, as it contains many (324) short paragraphs, each with a star in the margin (on average 15 per page).There have been suggestions that this section was some sort of calendar (or almanac), although adding the two missing folios the total number of paragraphs would probably be higher than 360 or 365....
The entire book has been scanned is available at the site of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, where the volume now resides.
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/brbldl/
Search for Voynich to see the scans, they are pretty wierd.
The Voynich manuscript may be the inspiration for "Codex Seraphinianus". Many years ago someone gave me this book. It is probably the strangest book ever published. Here is a link to one of several websites devoted to this profusly illustrated strange tome written entirely in an imaginary or invented script. I am quite astonished to find that my copy of this book is apparently valued at around $250 or more!!
http://www.io.com/~iareth/codindx.html
a less strange than usual pic:
and a scholarly treatise on the work, with a few more pics.
http://faculty.msvu.ca/pschwenger/codex.htm
A search will turn up many websites featuring reproductions of parts of this book. Here's one that has a bit on it's creator, and one of the stranger illustrations from the book:
http://www.almaleh.com/se-auth.htm
Stull cluttering up the Cantina with obscure, useless esoterica.....