许多人称这部15世纪的手抄本，俗称 "伏尼契手稿"，为世界上最神秘的书。这本手稿由一个不知名的作者用不知名的字体写成，在1912年被珍稀图书经销商威尔弗里德·沃伊尼奇重新。比起当初重新被发现时，现在它的目的再清楚不过了。这本手稿在历史上出现过，也消失过，从神圣罗马皇帝鲁道夫二世的图书馆到1903年罗马耶稣会举办的一场秘密售书会。这本书的语言一直没有被破译，其精心绘制的插图既美丽又令人费解。本书首次对这本手稿进行了复制，并配有精心设计的折叠部分，让读者可以探索这个谜团的所有惊人细节，从它****的 "伏尼契 "文字到它的插图，包括非现实世界的植物、陌生的星座，以及在奇幻的管道和绿色浴室中游泳的裸体女人。

手稿所附的文章解释了我们对这件作品的了解——从炼金术、密码学、法医和历史的角度——但它们几乎没有提供明确的答案。相反，正如《纽约时报》畅销书作者黛博拉·哈克尼斯在序言中所说，本书 "邀请读者和我们一起走进谜团的核心"。

The first authorized copy of this mysterious, much-speculated-upon, one-of-a-kind, centuries-old puzzle

Many call the fifteenth-

century codex, commonly known as the “Voynich Manuscript,” the world’s most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. The manuscript appears and disappears throughout history, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to a secret sale of books in 1903 by the Society of Jesus in Rome. The book’s language has eluded decipherment, and its elaborate illustrations remain as baffling as they are beautiful. For the first time, this facsimile, complete with elaborate folding sections, allows readers to explore this enigma in all its stunning detail, from its one-of-

a-kind “Voynichese” text to its illustrations of otherworldly plants, unfamiliar constellations, and naked women swimming though fantastical tubes and green baths.

The essays that accompany the manuscript explain what we have learned about this work—from alchemical, cryptographic, forensic, and historical perspectives—but they provide few definitive answers. Instead, as New York Times best-

selling author Deborah Harkness says in her introduction, the book “invites the reader to join us at the heart of the mystery.”