WEBVTT - The Book No One Can Read

0:00:05.921 --> 0:00:07.281
<v Speaker 1>Approach production.

0:00:19.001 --> 0:00:24.121
<v Speaker 2>Hi, welcome to Silent Secrets, a bedtime podcast for curious minds.

0:00:25.641 --> 0:00:31.561
<v Speaker 2>I'm jay, I'm glad you're here. This is your time

0:00:31.681 --> 0:00:34.721
<v Speaker 2>to let go of today, to settle.

0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.401
<v Speaker 1>In and slow down, and let.

0:00:37.321 --> 0:00:44.161
<v Speaker 2>Curiosity gently carry you towards sleep. In each episode, I'm

0:00:44.161 --> 0:00:47.321
<v Speaker 2>going to share a true story of the unexplained, not

0:00:47.480 --> 0:00:50.961
<v Speaker 2>to alarm you, but to quiet your mind, to remind

0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.361
<v Speaker 2>you that the world is full of wonder and some

0:00:54.561 --> 0:01:00.681
<v Speaker 2>things we'll never truly understand. So take a deep breath,

0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:07.481
<v Speaker 2>feel your body sink into comfort, let the weight of

0:01:07.521 --> 0:01:22.081
<v Speaker 2>the day drift away as we begin tonight's story. Tonight,

0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.601
<v Speaker 2>I want to tell you about a book, not a

0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.401
<v Speaker 2>famous one, not a book you'd find on a bestseller list,

0:01:30.801 --> 0:01:36.920
<v Speaker 2>and not a book anyone actually understands. It doesn't shout

0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:45.801
<v Speaker 2>for attention, It doesn't explain itself. It just exists, locked

0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.641
<v Speaker 2>away for centuries, covered in drawings that don't belong to

0:01:49.681 --> 0:01:54.521
<v Speaker 2>our world, written in a language no one has ever

0:01:54.721 --> 0:01:59.641
<v Speaker 2>been able to read. This is the story of the

0:01:59.721 --> 0:02:13.241
<v Speaker 2>Voyage Manuscript. If you are holding it in your hand,

0:02:14.441 --> 0:02:17.800
<v Speaker 2>the first thing you'd notice is how ordinary it feels.

0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:24.761
<v Speaker 2>It's not dramatic, It's just parchment bound together, filled with ink.

0:02:25.761 --> 0:02:33.921
<v Speaker 2>But then you open it and nothing makes sense. The

0:02:34.001 --> 0:02:40.681
<v Speaker 2>writing doesn't match any known language. The letters repeat in

0:02:40.761 --> 0:02:48.161
<v Speaker 2>patterns but no one can translate them. And the drawings

0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.761
<v Speaker 2>they look like plants, but not plants that actually exist.

0:02:56.481 --> 0:03:02.801
<v Speaker 2>Roots twisted in impossible ways, flowers with no known match,

0:03:04.161 --> 0:03:09.681
<v Speaker 2>Leaves that fear imagined rather than grown. It's like someone

0:03:09.761 --> 0:03:17.641
<v Speaker 2>tried to describe another world using the wrong alphabet. This

0:03:17.761 --> 0:03:25.161
<v Speaker 2>manuscript is old, very old. Carbon dating places it somewhere

0:03:25.561 --> 0:03:29.841
<v Speaker 2>in the early fourteen hundreds, which means this isn't a

0:03:29.841 --> 0:03:34.961
<v Speaker 2>modern trick. It's not a prank from the Internet age.

0:03:35.241 --> 0:03:39.161
<v Speaker 2>It's been confusing people for more than six hundred years,

0:03:40.841 --> 0:03:45.121
<v Speaker 2>and every generation that finds it thinks maybe this time

0:03:45.481 --> 0:04:02.241
<v Speaker 2>will understand it. So far, no one has. The book

0:04:02.441 --> 0:04:07.001
<v Speaker 2>is named after Wilfred Voyniche, a rare book dealer who

0:04:07.041 --> 0:04:11.321
<v Speaker 2>acquired it in nineteen twelve. But even he knew he

0:04:11.481 --> 0:04:18.001
<v Speaker 2>wasn't discovering something new. The mystery was already there. The

0:04:18.001 --> 0:04:25.481
<v Speaker 2>manuscript had passed through hands before him, scholars, collectors, and

0:04:25.561 --> 0:04:31.361
<v Speaker 2>people who try to unlock it and quietly failed. Some

0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:36.601
<v Speaker 2>believed it was a medical text. Others thought it was

0:04:36.641 --> 0:04:45.201
<v Speaker 2>about astronomy, some saw recipes, some saw nonsense that all

0:04:45.241 --> 0:04:56.001
<v Speaker 2>of them eventually reached the same point silence. As you

0:04:56.081 --> 0:05:02.520
<v Speaker 2>turn the pages, the book seems to shift moods. One

0:05:02.561 --> 0:05:13.921
<v Speaker 2>section is filled with strange botanical drawing. Another shows circular diagrams, stars, suns, moons,

0:05:14.921 --> 0:05:19.561
<v Speaker 2>arranged in a way that feel meaningful, even if we.

0:05:19.561 --> 0:05:24.241
<v Speaker 1>Don't know how. Then there are.

0:05:24.201 --> 0:05:34.161
<v Speaker 2>The figures, small human shapes, mostly women, bathing in green pools,

0:05:35.761 --> 0:05:42.561
<v Speaker 2>connected by pipes and channels that almost look mechanical. It's

0:05:42.601 --> 0:05:49.481
<v Speaker 2>intimate and unfamiliar, like a dream you remember emotionally but

0:05:49.641 --> 0:05:57.721
<v Speaker 2>not logically. Over the years, the best minds in the

0:05:57.721 --> 0:06:05.640
<v Speaker 2>world have tried to crack it. Linguists, historians, cryptographers, even

0:06:05.761 --> 0:06:10.440
<v Speaker 2>codebreakers from World War II people who cracked enemy ciphers

0:06:10.481 --> 0:06:14.880
<v Speaker 2>that save lines. Took a look at the manuscripts. And

0:06:14.961 --> 0:06:21.681
<v Speaker 2>still nothing. No breakthrough, no moment where the symbols suddenly

0:06:21.721 --> 0:06:28.601
<v Speaker 2>line up and reveal their meaning. The book resists understanding,

0:06:29.961 --> 0:06:37.481
<v Speaker 2>almost politely. Some people think that the manuscript is written

0:06:37.561 --> 0:06:42.481
<v Speaker 2>in a lost language, a real one spoken by people

0:06:42.641 --> 0:06:50.041
<v Speaker 2>who simply vanished. Others believe it's a complex cipher, a

0:06:50.201 --> 0:06:54.041
<v Speaker 2>code so carefully constructed that it still hasn't given up

0:06:54.121 --> 0:06:59.841
<v Speaker 2>its secret. And then there's the idea that makes people uncomfortable,

0:07:01.081 --> 0:07:04.761
<v Speaker 2>that it might be a hoax. But even that doesn't

0:07:04.841 --> 0:07:13.721
<v Speaker 2>quite fit, because hoaxes usually fall apart. They have inconsistencies, shortcuts,

0:07:14.201 --> 0:07:22.681
<v Speaker 2>and mistakes. The Voydage manuscript is too consistent, too structured.

0:07:23.241 --> 0:07:30.241
<v Speaker 2>It behaves like a language, just not one we recognize.

0:07:30.961 --> 0:07:35.641
<v Speaker 2>There's something weirdly calming about that. A book that doesn't

0:07:35.721 --> 0:07:40.161
<v Speaker 2>rush to be understood, and a message that doesn't demand decoding.

0:07:41.761 --> 0:07:48.361
<v Speaker 2>It waits patiently, as if it knows time is on

0:07:48.441 --> 0:08:02.121
<v Speaker 2>its side. It's easy to imagine the person who wrote

0:08:02.161 --> 0:08:09.801
<v Speaker 2>it sitting by a candlelight, carefully forming each symbol, drawing

0:08:09.921 --> 0:08:16.481
<v Speaker 2>plants that no one else has ever seen. Were they

0:08:16.601 --> 0:08:24.241
<v Speaker 2>recording knowledge or inventing something new, or translating ideas they

0:08:24.241 --> 0:08:31.521
<v Speaker 2>didn't fully understand themselves, And did they believe, truly believe

0:08:31.761 --> 0:08:45.881
<v Speaker 2>that someone someday would read it. The manuscript now lives

0:08:45.921 --> 0:08:53.441
<v Speaker 2>in a library, protected, preserved, and quietly studied. People look

0:08:53.481 --> 0:08:59.561
<v Speaker 2>at it, still searching for patterns, still running through computers

0:08:59.561 --> 0:09:05.321
<v Speaker 2>and algorithms, hoping modern technology might see what the humans

0:09:05.361 --> 0:09:26.401
<v Speaker 2>couldn't so far. The book remains silent, and that's maybe

0:09:26.481 --> 0:09:31.601
<v Speaker 2>the point. Not every mystery is meant to be solved quickly.

0:09:33.321 --> 0:09:37.521
<v Speaker 2>Some are meant to sit beside us, to remind us

0:09:37.561 --> 0:09:44.921
<v Speaker 2>all that knowledge has edges, curiosity doesn't always end in answers,

0:09:46.361 --> 0:09:57.401
<v Speaker 2>and that not understanding something doesn't make it meaningless. If

0:09:57.441 --> 0:10:01.761
<v Speaker 2>you're listening to this idea in bed, let that idea settle.

0:10:03.001 --> 0:10:07.481
<v Speaker 2>Somewhere in the world, there's a book filled with words

0:10:07.761 --> 0:10:13.121
<v Speaker 2>no one can read. It doesn't threaten them, it doesn't

0:10:13.121 --> 0:10:21.561
<v Speaker 2>warn them, it doesn't explain. It simply exists, waiting for

0:10:21.681 --> 0:10:24.281
<v Speaker 2>a reader who may never come.

0:10:27.201 --> 0:12:06.921
<v Speaker 1>Good night, sat.

0:12:34.921 --> 0:12:37.841
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening to this episode and supporting this story.

0:12:38.401 --> 0:12:41.561
<v Speaker 2>Independent storytelling that shapes the world is what podshape really

0:12:41.561 --> 0:12:44.521
<v Speaker 2>cares about. Right now, There's thousands of people listening to

0:12:44.561 --> 0:12:48.161
<v Speaker 2>this show and our other true Crimes, and they're completely engaged.

0:12:48.401 --> 0:12:51.121
<v Speaker 2>More than ten million Australians listen to podcasts each week.

0:12:51.841 --> 0:12:54.681
<v Speaker 2>If you've ever thought about advertising your business in a podcast,

0:12:55.001 --> 0:12:56.921
<v Speaker 2>there's a link to reach out in the show notes,

0:12:57.361 --> 0:13:00.001
<v Speaker 2>or head to podshape dot com to book a free call.