World’s ‘most mysterious book’ could be a medieval sex manual

A medieval manuscript full of bizarre drawings could be a very old sex manual – or at least part of it.

The Voynich manuscript has fascinated both scientists and the public for more than a century since it was rediscovered by a rare books dealer in 1912.

About the size of a modern-day hardback but twice as thick, the manuscript is written in  language yet to be deciphered – meaning we have no idea what it, or its colourful drawings, are trying to say.

Now however, two historians from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, think they may have found the meaning behind it – sex.

The book is thought to date back to around the early 15th Century – carbon dating shows the skins used to make its pages come from animals that died between 1404 and 1438. However, its first known owner was Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, who lived from 1552 and 1612.

But while we don’t know who the first owner was, it’s fair to say they lived during a rather prudish time.

In the book however, Zodiac symbols, crowns, a castle wall and the Sun are mixed in with plentiful images of naked women in some interesting positions.

Writing for The Conversation, study co-author Dr Keagan Brewer said: ‘One section contains illustrations of naked women holding objects adjacent to, or oriented towards, their genitalia. These wouldn’t belong in a solely herbal or astronomical manuscript. To make sense of these images, we investigated the culture of late-medieval gynaecology and sexology – which physicians at the time often referred to as “women’s secrets”.’

First, the team looked at Bavarian physician Johannes Hartlieb, who lived around the time and place the Voynich manuscript was made.

Dr Brewer said: ‘In his un-enciphered writings, he either refuses or hesitates to write about certain topics, such as post-partum vaginal ointments, women’s sexual pleasure, claims of women giving birth to animals, the “correct” coital positions for conception, libido-altering dietary advice, and information about poisonous, hallucinogenic, contraceptive or abortive plants.

‘As a man who valued heterosexual marriage and women’s “modesty”, and who condemned lust, promiscuity and prostitution, he was perfectly conventional for his milieu [environment].’

So, we know sex was more than a bit taboo at the time – what suggests this whole book is about it?

Firstly, just because something is frowned upon, doesn’t mean people don’t still want to write or learn about it. They just have to be subtle – hence the cipher, a secret coded language. The researchers decoded a number of encrypted writings from the same period discussing ‘women’s secrets’.

‘We also found many examples of authors self-censoring, or of readers erasing or destroying information in gynaecological and/or sexological texts,’ said Dr Brewer. ‘Censors would often only obscure a few words, usually genital terms or plant names in recipes – but sometimes they would remove entire pages or chapters.

‘One Bavarian manuscript includes recipes for invisibility and magic spells for sexually coercing women, after which two pages have been removed. The censor writes this removal was done “not without reason”.’

This suggests to avoid censorship, the author used a mix of the cipher and illustrations to share their message.

Working on this basis, the team argues that the book’s largest and most elaborate illustration, the Rosettes, represent a late-medieval understanding of sex and conception.

‘In late-medieval times the uterus was believed to have seven chambers, and the vagina two openings (one external and one internal),’ said Dr Brewer.

‘We believe the nine large circles of the Rosettes represent these, with the central circle representing the outer opening, and the top-left circle representing the inner opening. The eight outer circles have smooth edges since they represent internal anatomy, while the central circle has a shaped edge since it represents external anatomy.

‘Abu Bakr Al-Rāzī, a Persian physician who influenced late-medieval European medicine, wrote that five small veins exist in the vaginas of virgins. We see these running from the top-left circle towards the centre.’

In addition, doctors at the time believe a male and female component were needed for conception – they weren’t wrong – but both were called sperm at the time. In the Rosettes, these are shown in yellow for the male and blue for the female.

It is also thought the uterus had two horns or spikes, which the team believes are shown on two of the circles.

Another sexy signal suggested is the image of a castle, which could be a world play on the German term schloss, which had meanings including female genitalia and female pelvis.

‘While many features of the illustration are yet to be understood, our proposal is worth close scrutiny,’ said Dr Brewer. 

‘We hope future research into the manuscript will approach it through a similar lens. Perhaps, with enough clues, we might find a way to finally decode this elusive text.’

After more than 500 years, whatever the text turns out to say when it is finally deciphered will be exciting.

But let’s face it, a sex angle will definitely be the most interesting.