1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:29,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Books do not simply appear. 5 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: Someone must undertake the task to sit down and compose 6 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:35,360 Speaker 1: the words on the page for another person to read. 7 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: And that's the main purpose of a book, to be read, 8 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: to convey information to another individual so that they might 9 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:46,120 Speaker 1: learn or be entertained, or in some cases both. A 10 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: book is a vessel and the person who opens that 11 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:52,479 Speaker 1: vessel is meant to consume the contents within, which is 12 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 1: what makes the Voytage Manuscripts such a complex and strange volume. 13 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:01,279 Speaker 1: It was discovered by an antiquarian bookseller named Wilfred Voynage 14 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: in it had been passed down through the ages from 15 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:09,560 Speaker 1: Holy Roman emperors two doctors to check collectors, going missing 16 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:12,480 Speaker 1: for two centuries until finally ending up in the hands 17 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,920 Speaker 1: of Voynage. He purchased it in a small Italian village 18 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:18,040 Speaker 1: and brought it back to London, where he kept it 19 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: hidden for several years. Then in nineteen fifteen, Voynage decided 20 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: to reveal the manuscript of the World, and scholars were 21 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: befuddled by it. Measuring roughly the size of a standard 22 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: modern hardcover, the book is comprised of two hundred forty 23 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: vellum pages bound within a goat skin binding In two 24 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 1: thousand nine, radio carbon dating test Pegnet's creation to sometime 25 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:46,560 Speaker 1: in the early fourteen hundreds. Almost every page is adorned 26 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: with paintings and drawings of flowers, mythological creatures, buildings and people, 27 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:57,600 Speaker 1: oh and text texts that no one can read. Some 28 00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: words are written in Latin, but the majority of the 29 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: next is written in an unknown language. It has been 30 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: studied continuously since Voyinage first uncovered the manuscript over a 31 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 1: century ago, and no one has successfully deciphered its contents. 32 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:16,080 Speaker 1: It's even been studied by n Essay cryptographers, who believe 33 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: the manuscript was written in a European language that had 34 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:23,520 Speaker 1: been converted using a kind of cipher to obscure the text. Others, though, 35 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: say that the words are really codes that required a 36 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:29,679 Speaker 1: separate book to translate properly. One man who examined the 37 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: book in claimed that it was actually a diary written 38 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: in a special shorthand only understood by the original author. However, 39 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:42,840 Speaker 1: historians quickly debunked that theory, citing that the abbreviations used 40 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:49,200 Speaker 1: in the book weren't based on any known style or form. Scientists, students, 41 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 1: and scholars looked at everything, the arrangement of the text, 42 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:55,919 Speaker 1: the number of letters and words in each line, how 43 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 1: each letter was formed, and still came away knowing no more. 44 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,440 Speaker 1: And they did before they laid eyes on it. One 45 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: of the more prominent theories came from a television writer 46 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:10,080 Speaker 1: and historian named Nicholas Gibbs. He'd been contacted to examine 47 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: the manuscript as part of a project he was working 48 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,200 Speaker 1: on for a UK television show. He published his findings 49 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,000 Speaker 1: on a prominent literary website, where it was picked up 50 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,799 Speaker 1: by countless outlets across the Internet. By all accounts, he'd 51 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 1: done what no one else could do. He had solved 52 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:29,520 Speaker 1: the mystery. Now, according to Gibbs, many of the Latin 53 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: abbreviations had been used in fifteenth century medical texts about herbs. 54 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: The idea that the book had been written in a 55 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 1: kind of code or cipher had been incorrect. All it 56 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: was was medical shorthand. And not only that, but many 57 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: of the diagrams within the book match diagrams and other 58 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: medical texts that Gibbs had consulted, leading him to believe 59 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:54,440 Speaker 1: the manuscript had been a specially created document for one 60 00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: specific reader who wanted all of their necessary information stored 61 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: within one book. The Voyage manuscript predates the printing press 62 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: by a few decades, so books of that time had 63 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:10,040 Speaker 1: to be reproduced manually, gives claim this particular manuscript had 64 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: been a greatest hits album of other textbooks pertaining to 65 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: herbal medicine and gynecology. Sadly, his treatise would quickly become 66 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:21,479 Speaker 1: a target of criticism, and soon after it was published, 67 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: medievalists dug in. They ripped apart his theory, mainly about 68 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: how he interpreted the Latin abbreviations. No one within the 69 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 1: historical community took him seriously, and just like that, everyone 70 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 1: was back to square one. Things got so desperate at 71 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:40,799 Speaker 1: one point that rumors circulated that the book was a fake, 72 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: fabricated by Voynage himself using his vast knowledge of antique 73 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: books of bookmaking. Historians, though, have ruled that idea out 74 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:52,120 Speaker 1: due to the age and provenance of the vellum. Finding 75 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 1: so many pages from a single source would have been 76 00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:59,719 Speaker 1: nearly impossible even for a dealer such as Voyage, and 77 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:04,400 Speaker 1: so for now the Voyage Manuscript remains an unsolved literary mystery. 78 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:07,480 Speaker 1: Theories seem to be debunked as soon as they are offered, 79 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:10,400 Speaker 1: but for anyone wanting to try their luck, they'll have 80 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:13,160 Speaker 1: to pay a visit to Yale University. That's where the 81 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:16,279 Speaker 1: book is housed today, within it's rare Book and Manuscript 82 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:21,200 Speaker 1: Library under the call number MS for zero eight. And 83 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: if you managed to sit in front of it, happy reading. 84 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,799 Speaker 1: Music has a way of affecting people like nothing else. 85 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,200 Speaker 1: Hearing an old song can transport a person back to 86 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:48,440 Speaker 1: their childhood, drumming up feelings of wistfulness or pain. Love 87 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: songs can ignite romance on a star lit night, or 88 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 1: regret for something lost. Music has always been equated with magic, 89 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:01,440 Speaker 1: and in some ways it really is. In others, it's 90 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 1: a poison that can bring a person lower than they've 91 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:08,920 Speaker 1: ever thought possible. Bounding Father Benjamin Franklin learned about this 92 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:13,839 Speaker 1: more sinister side of music the hard way. Franklin was 93 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:16,760 Speaker 1: a bit of a renaissance man, with his interest extending 94 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,440 Speaker 1: from politics, to art, to literature, and to music. A 95 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:23,400 Speaker 1: friend of his Edward de Laval played a unique kind 96 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:27,000 Speaker 1: of instrument, one that captivated Franklin from the first note. 97 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: He called it a glass harp, and it wasn't really 98 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: an instrument at all, at least not in the traditional sense. 99 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 1: It didn't use strings or a reed to generate sound. 100 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: There was nothing more than a table of glass cups 101 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: filled to different levels with water. Delaval would wet his 102 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:46,120 Speaker 1: finger and rub it along the rim of each glass, 103 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:50,160 Speaker 1: one at a time, which would generate a tone. Franklin 104 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:53,840 Speaker 1: was enchanted by the gentle hums from Delaval's harp, so 105 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:57,000 Speaker 1: he set out to make one for himself. His idea 106 00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:59,599 Speaker 1: was to construct the table of goblets into something that 107 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:02,760 Speaker 1: would it in a box and could be easily transported 108 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: for travel. He worked with the local glass blower to 109 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:11,080 Speaker 1: create glass bowls of various sizes arranged on an iron 110 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: rod horizontally. Each bowl would play a single note when 111 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 1: touched by a wet finger. A foot pedal would spin 112 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 1: the whole contraption, allowing Franklin to simply shift his hands 113 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:24,480 Speaker 1: when he wanted to play different notes. The novel new 114 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,600 Speaker 1: design actually allowed him to play up to ten notes 115 00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:31,760 Speaker 1: at the same time, much like a piano. He dubbed 116 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: his creation the glass armonica, yes, just like harmonica, another 117 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:39,360 Speaker 1: name it often went by. He debuted his glass armonica 118 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty two, and it took off with audiences immediately. 119 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:47,360 Speaker 1: The sound was unlike anything anyone had ever heard, and 120 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 1: its popularity grew so quickly that legends like Mozart and 121 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:56,280 Speaker 1: Beethoven even composed music for it. However, not everyone found 122 00:07:56,320 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: the glass harmonica a soothing experience. It's other worldly tones 123 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: didn't sit well with some listeners, who spoke of dizziness, 124 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 1: stomach gichs, fainting, and in some extreme cases, permanent nerve damage. 125 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 1: Even worse were the psychological problems associated with its music. 126 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:17,480 Speaker 1: Both listeners and players were known to suffer from depression, 127 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 1: suicidal thoughts, and some even had to be committed to 128 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,800 Speaker 1: sanitariums for delusions, and all of it was attributed to 129 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:29,440 Speaker 1: listening to this instrument. During one performance in Germany, a 130 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:33,360 Speaker 1: child died after a prolonged exposure to its music. The 131 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:36,680 Speaker 1: more spiritually minded believed its high pitched notes could summon 132 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:39,920 Speaker 1: the ghosts of the dead. In reality, it was science 133 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:43,400 Speaker 1: that held the answers. It turns out that the tones 134 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: produced by the device occurred at such a range the 135 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:51,079 Speaker 1: human ear was unable to detect their origin. This disorientation, 136 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:54,319 Speaker 1: combined with the surreal nature of the notes themselves, may 137 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:57,679 Speaker 1: have been what had created such a discomfort in audiences. 138 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:01,960 Speaker 1: It had also been suspected that lead in the glass 139 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,200 Speaker 1: may have caused sickness in anyone who touched the bulls, 140 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:08,360 Speaker 1: but those claims were never confirmed. Most degree that the 141 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:10,400 Speaker 1: trace amounts that would have been present could not have 142 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:15,400 Speaker 1: been enough to triggered lead poisoning. Regardless of the science, 143 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: these symptoms and stories led to the belief that the 144 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:22,320 Speaker 1: glass armonica was cursed, which led to its eventual decline, 145 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,280 Speaker 1: except in the case of Benjamin Franklin. He never experienced 146 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: any of the instrument side effects and continued to play 147 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:32,600 Speaker 1: it until his death in seventeen. He was quoted as saying, 148 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:36,840 Speaker 1: of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me 149 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:43,480 Speaker 1: the greatest personal satisfaction. Unfortunately, no one else felt the same. 150 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:47,000 Speaker 1: Over half a century after its debut, not a single 151 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:50,960 Speaker 1: musician was still playing the glass armonica. Musical tastes had 152 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:54,600 Speaker 1: moved on. New instruments were cropping up, ones whose notes 153 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:58,439 Speaker 1: could fill a concert Hall without creating psychological damage in 154 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 1: the listener. By five thousand glass armonicas were made during 155 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:06,199 Speaker 1: the seventeen hundreds, and today only a handful still remain. 156 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:09,880 Speaker 1: A replica of the one Franklin played is on display 157 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,520 Speaker 1: at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. You can visit it 158 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: if you want to see it. Surprisingly, though, the instrument 159 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:21,080 Speaker 1: has seen a kind of resurgence, most notably among film composers. 160 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 1: In fact, thanks to composer James Horner, millions of people 161 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,600 Speaker 1: around the world have heard the otherworldly tones of the 162 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:32,640 Speaker 1: glass armonica without knowing it, and the song it's simply 163 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:36,960 Speaker 1: called Spock a theme for the same character in Star 164 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:41,840 Speaker 1: Trek two, The Wrath of con A good choice and one, 165 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:49,319 Speaker 1: I might add that is most logical. I hope you've 166 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:53,400 Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe 167 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:56,000 Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the 168 00:10:56,040 --> 00:11:00,800 Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was 169 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:04,720 Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. 170 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is 171 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:11,800 Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can 172 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:14,200 Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore 173 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: dot com, and until next time, stay curious.