The world’s most mysterious book - Stephen Bax 

Oh, so when some medieval guy does it it's "mysterious" and "captivating", but when I do it I "have terrible hand writing" and "need to go back to school"

‘After 100 years of frustration’ Someone please carve that into my grave

Can't imagine how many languages the humankind has forgotten.

Honestly, that book looks beautifully and artistically made. Especially those handwritings.

Could you imagine having a book you drew nonsense in and then hundreds of years later people think it's some magnificent work of complex art and dedicate years attempting to understand its 'complexity?'

introvert kid: *draws things out of boredom* people today: *the world's most mysterious book*

In middle school my two best friends and I shared a diary we passed to each other. We wrote it in a language we made up. We also lost it and don't know what happened to it. Always assumed the Voynich Manuscript was the 1420s version of three best friends sharing a diary and then losing it to have it somehow become a great mystery.

I had a friend who told me she used a secret code to write in her diary so that it was unreadable to anyone who might come upon it. This ancient mystery manuscript could very well be just someone's journal of their thoughts and dreams that they decided to write in a made-up script only they could understand lol.

This gives me hope that my old notebooks will be found in 600 years and they'll think of them as a compendium on medicine when in truth are just the hastily and poorly written notes of a med student

ITS JUST THE LOST HOMEWORK OF AN ANCIENT KID

I guess it's also important to note that folks couldn't just get a journal for fun back then, it was considerable effort to do the binding, material, resources, inks, and so on to make a complete tome, so that kind of dedication as well as its age is quite significant

Also can we take a moment to appreciate the stop-motion technique used to create the graphics for this video?? absolutely amazing creativity !

Imagine if someone randomly watched this video and understood what it said.

This inspired me to write some gibberish to confuse the future generations

Some medieval person invents a language and scholars are all like "what can it *possibly* be?!" Then 500 years later Tolkien does the same thing and scholars are like, "yeah, but that's just *genre* fiction."

I must say that this is one of my dreams as a kid: create a written language and write a book using it. Can't wait for the day it will be done.

This is how future archeologist will describe our memes

7 years old me trying to write a magic book:

I feel it almost matters less what it actually is, than how much joy and thought has gone into it. If we learn someday that it holds the secret to remaining zit-free, or just understanding, and exploring a wonderful mystery, I am happy this object exists.

After numerous years, future contemporary historians will think the same about my friend's history notebook..

Every person who has seen this video, in some part of their heart, wants to be the person to translate this book.

i would love it if this was actually just the diary of a teenager with a big imagination lmaoooooo

I had literal chills when I watched this video. I know that it could just be a diary of a big- headed teenager but it could also be the account of a period of history that was lost simply cause it wasn't rembered.

"Be sure to drink your ovaltine." Hilarious reference!

Well one day future people will look back at memes and think the same thing..

Ngl, that handwriting looks so beautiful, like when you see it the language feels familiar but you can't read it

Nice touch to reference Jean Shepherd's Little Orphan Annie-Ovaltine Code Ring schtick.

Thank you🙏 TED-Ed I will watch this later.

children back in the day who made up their own language to communicate with each other in secret at school watching this like: 👁👄👁

"We've translated the first page! IT'S A COOKBOOK!!"

I think leaving something so puzzling behind for so many years is the most inspiring way to leave this earth

I like the idea of very creative friends, siblings, or lovers who created a fantasy world and language and wrote notes back and forth to each other That or maybe even twins who developed a script for their cryptophasia

"What do you think it is?" The diary of a mediaeval Wimpy Kid.

"What do you think it is ?" Lemme see: _ unreadable handwriting _ a mysterious language _ drawings and doodles That's just my notebook

Maybe the real Voynich Manuscript was the friends we made along the way

I am time traveler and this is my’s first time seeing this book,It is a dialect of Latin and Arabic spoken off the coast of Massila ,france , I personally used to call it massilen because modern historians didn’t name it [the dialect]. It’s possible it’s not even from Europe [the book], I remember people trading into ports of massila used to speak this dialect,it emerged in the glory days of massila died out slowly during 1700s it is an ancient language but people as they were traders didn’t write much in it. The book is just a language tradesmen around the massila to Arles region trading good from Egypt n others.

When decoded its "Never gonna give you up" put in loop.

Some medieval jokester is laughing at us

I believe that at the time that it was written the information in this book was very valuable. People had somewhat limited understanding compare to today. There are plants that could kill you, and plants that can make you well. Perhaps this book is a little about what was usable back then.

This was presented very well. Good watch

The people who made this are face palming in heaven

Have you tried turning it off and then on again?

One episode of documentary series "Czech Mysteries" by Czech TV was about this book (since it is connected to Prague). It is unfortunatelly only in Czech language but it is very well done (much more detailed - 40 minutes). I wish you guys could see that, you would not be like "It's just some random medieval dude's dairy" after that.

This is an intriguing story and I think I have a wild idea as to what it might be.

I wonder if some future generation will find one of my old high school notebooks that I would scribble on and have scholars trying to decipher it.

1:37 can we talk about how pretty the handwriting is?

there's 7 of us siblings, my oldest brother invented alphabets (not exactly languages) and all of us learned it and used it all the time. i would write words in my notebook and my friends would be puzzled at it

2:06 was gold! "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine", from "A Christmas Story" (1983). 😆

Spoiler: it's the first troll in history.

Plot twist : The writer actually wanted to make a drawing book for kids but used auto-generated subtitles instead

I think this could be a journal of someone's thoughts, dreams and random doodles.🤷‍♀️

It has astrology signs and plant drawings. Maybe something alchemy related. Obviously if it was a true complete language that's used here, maybe they are just using a different letter script. It's fairly difficult to artificially create a complete language. Even Tolkien's Elvish/Dwarfish were not fully complete.

Super computers from the year 2099 will eventually translate it and will say, "it's just a prank, bro." over and over.

If scholars found my English note book in 300 or so years they'd probably think its from a lost culture or a new language or something.

You never know, it could be a studious teen's journal to sketch and scribble gibberish in.❤️

This is a fabulous and concise video of what the Voynich Manuscript is or might be. I paid £35 for the The Voynich manuscript facsimile which is a gorgeous full size representation of the real thing and beautifully illustrated and, although I'm the proud owner of this gorgeously created facsimile, this short video would definitely be all the average interested party would need to give them a superb taster of it. I love the sprinkled animations which are just right.....not too cheesy or intruding but just right. So, very well done to Stephen Bax. In this short video I believe you've captured the essence of the manuscript.......and a big thanks from Bonnie Scotland. My thoughts on this undecipherable mystery are that, since most of us who will look at it will try to logically find what the text is saying but, what if a group of people who don't think logically say perhaps autistic or similarly off the spectrum people were given the book to look at in an illogical and completely different way..................maybe then there might be some progress : )

just a diary with a secret language some kid and his friend made

Imagine in 1000 years. Poeple will be confused why we have posters of a dead gorrila and why we had pictures with white text at the top and bottom of the page.

"Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it."

4:10 I am really sure this is a Botany book, and how that picture relates to the fact that a female gametophyte of plants consists of 7 Cells. Notice how they're coming out of a plant, and they're 7 in number and have the shapes of a women. If my concern is true, then the person who wrote this was an exceptional Botanist.

Every time i finish watching I'm like "ok now let's see the comments "

it's a compilation of the dankest medieval memes.

Narrator: For over 100 years, scientist have tried to crack the code of the book without breakthrough. Narrator to me: What do you think it is? Well I think it's a book no one understands just yet.

I'm shocked you guys didn't talk about the Cotex Gigas. Maybe another video?👀

Is no one going to talk about how beautifully made this video is done? I love it :(

it’s comforting to know my doodle book may be studied in the future

My guess is that It was written by someone: - With lots of free time on their hands and therefore was wealthy - Had very bad hand writing - An overactive imagination - And liked doodling That's it, nothing more; but of course we all love to overthink things and make it more complicated then it really is.

I think I saw a video where people figured out that the book was written in Turkish! Although, the author(s) probably didn't know how to properly spell the words they heard, so they just wrote down what they heard. Do take this with a handful of salt, not just a pinch, because I might be wrong about a thing or two. I hope this helps anyone? If anyone is curious, I think you can still find the video. Type in "Decyphering the Voynich Manuscript" or something into the searchbar, you might find the video

"How To Survive Your First Night In Minecraft"

Just gotta say the way you presented this video is beautiful. From the animations and art to the sound in the background and the soothing voice. Nice

Please do a video on the codex gigas and maybe there's other ancient books I'm not fully aware of

It was Voynich...I'm about 90% sure on that. No had ever heard of this book until Voynich brought it in 1912. He was pretty much a genius. He knew where to get the paper and how to make the ink

"The world's most mysterious book" Me: Maths Book?

This book may forever remain *UNSOLVED*

There is an online pdf of it available, and just from the pictures it looks like how to grow, culture and grafting plants and when to harvest them (with some different calendars available in that time), so you can make some kind of medicine out of it. But its very wired especially towards the end.

Started and ended with absolute mysteriousness..

It is so painful to think that there might be important breakthroughs and knowledge humanity has discovered and then lost in translation

"after 100 years of frustration" sounds like school to me

Either someone wrote gibberish in a book and sold it as ancient knowledge (which would be absolutely frickin amazing) or someone was tripping balls for like 2 days straight and wrote a book

The book kinda looks like bio notes from that one girl who has all the glitter pens and markers in class and writes in cursive but when you ask for her notes she refuses.

Those 15th century 4Chan trolls crack me up.

The only word I could decipher was written in an old German dialect, spoken in the area of Switzerland and northern Italy. It was a phonetic-like representation of a zodiac (Pisces or the word "fish"). However it looked like the word was added by someone who did not create the manuscript, and that more than just a few people were adding content. If you took a piece of a glass, a book, and dimmed the light, you could trace similar letters onto a blank page while reflecting the written text (scrying witchcraft)... or if you were a foreigner on a Chinese trade ship trying to log everything you hear and see... that is what the journal would look like. Also, there are some patterns that suggest a music rhythm rather than a language... Also, imagine what it would look like if an illiterate person were to invent a writing while being familiar with the concept of writing. I think that we would see similar patterns if the same language were in question.

This video is very well made! Wow!!

Imagine when you just want to doodle shits and they thought it's a relevant mystery :D :D

Prank level: over 9000

Own a copy of this book it feels real to me. I feel someone from hollow earth while visiting us left it behind… no different than us when we explore leaving stuff behind. This is a language still used today, I feel this in my soul!

You know sometimes book that hold mysterious secrets usually be a dull book that is nothing little of a secret

Props to the animators who build a small recreation of the book.

that's why teachers insist on us to write our names in every paper

My theory: a constructed language made and used by a small group of friends who were either nuns or monks (mainly because they were the groups most likely to have the knowledge and ability to write, illustrate, and bind the manuscript) that created their own fantasy world/story. Our ancestors weren't as dour as we portray them. I'm still interested in knowing what it says but this is my best guess as to what it is.

Consulta: si descubrí qué es el manuscrito, dónde debiera comunicarlo?

Aight, now I have to spend my whole summer researching this thing.

IT'S SOMEBODY'S DIARY STOP READING IT

bucket list: write some random scribbles on an old notebook and bury it

the more i think of it the more it seems to be an encyclopedia. i mean if they ever try to even translate it, i guess the most they are going to find is some kind of rare species of plants that we never knew that existed or maybe just see what those century people thought of it and appreciate their efforts.

I love these types of mysteries cause they really show that no matter how much time has passed, there are still many secrets and mysteries in history unsolved.

The creator of the book is one of the oldest and smartest troll; the book is just a masterpiece of a troll.

I can't remember if it's this book or another, but I remember reading somewhere that it was supposed to imitate the feeling of a child too young to be able to read or make sense of the world come across an encyclopedia.

Cool to be here in 2021 and seeing what people thought about the manuscript before they actually solved the mystery.

The book is written by a man who forgets to write his name.