The Voynich manuscript has been a source of mystery for over half a millennium, being seemingly untranslatable. Every so often some academic will come up with a new theory, but now it seems we finally have the answer, and it’s been staring us in the face all along.
Professor Lynn Gwist of Oxford University was quick to explain:
“It’s actually a detailed manifesto listing all the benefits of the UK leaving the European Union,” she said. “All the pictures are a clear guide to Brexit and why it says we should have it.”
Professor Gwist went on to explain that the flower symbols are there to represent everything coming up roses, and the image of nude ladies bathing meant free hot tubs for all.
Her research has been called into question by many eminent scholars however, with Professor Ivan Tancers being particularly vocal in his criticism.
“Her theory makes no explanation of the wording and what language it’s in,” he explained. “If you read a book and just follow the pictures and not the words, you don’t get the whole story by a long way, and this manuscript is no different.”
Professor Gwist acknowledged her colleague’s scepticism however, and admitted:
“I got to the wording later on,” she said, “and it does put a different complexion on matters, the wording translates in detail to all the businesses that have left the UK, and all the escalation in hate-crimes that has happened since the vote. It’s really a very clever prediction of the whole debate really. The words are designed for the clever people to understand, and that’s the pro-remain case. The pictures make up the pro-leave argument and are aimed at those people with less education. Given that the breakdown of space allocated to words and pictures is about fifty-fifty, this works quite nicely.”
Professor Gwist will be publishing a paper about this theory on October 31st. How valid it actually is has yet to be confirmed, one way or the other.