Liber Incognita

Few artifacts in the world of books have caused greater confusion and theorizing than The Voynich Manuscript. Its origin is unknown as is the Manuscript’s author. Despite the context clues that can be drawn from its illustrations, the function of the text is also unknown. To add to the litany of mysteries it offers, it is written in an unidentifiable language and script.




This unusual tome first appears in known history in 1912 when Wilifred Voynich, a book collector, purchases the manuscript from a Jesuit school in Rome. Voynich made every possible attempt at uncovering the books secrets, sending photographed copies of the 200 page book to interpreters and code-breakers around the world, but all returned answer-less and as perplexed as its owner. There are apocryphal stories of The Voynich Manuscript having been sent to a military code-breaker during World War II with disastrous result; according to legend, the cryptographer slipped into madness due to his inability to translate the text.

What is so compelling about this book? At the heart of it’s strange history is the simplicity of mystery itself. The book has no apparent pedigree. Perhaps it is best to break the Voynich Manuscript to its most obvious component parts. The book is seemingly separated in to multiple sections, covering what appears to be various subject matters. Illustrations of plants lend to the thought that it is a botanical text, abruptly shifting gears with what appears to Astrological or Astronomy. Further crude and unusual illustrations of people bathing in pools fed by what appears to be pipes in the shape and color of human organs.

Two figures are often implicated with The Voynich Manuscript: Roger Bacon and Dr. John Dee.



Roger Bacon was a Franciscan Friar who lived during the 13th Century and is best remembered for his early scientific and alchemical experiments. Bacon often found himself run afoul with the hierarchy of The Vatican given his insistence on studying and teaching Astronomy and the philosophy of Aristotle. Known for his vast amount of knowledge of a variety of subjects during a time period when even those blessed with an education were extremely limited in what they knew, it stands to reason with Voynich theorists that the “Doctor Mirabillis” of Oxford could be the hand that is responsible for this mysterious piece.

Dr. John Dee was an astrologer and mathematician in service of Queen Elizabeth I, often serving as her tutor and personal scholar. Dee is, in many ways, a figure whose presence can be felt in the shadows of British History. It is claimed that he, using Astrology, picked an auspicious date for Elizabeth’s coronation and was responsible for coining the term “The British Empire.” A student of French Neo-Platonism, Dee never seemed to make a distinction between his “serious” areas of study and his more arcane pursuits. While known as a devoutly Christian man, John Dee was well-known for a serious of occult rituals in which claimed to found a way to make contact with the entirety of the Angels in God’s employ.

While both of these men are colorful and deserve their unique place in history, it seems unlikely both of these men have a connection to The Voynich Manuscript. The connection of Roger Bacon to the Manuscript seems solely based on the connection to the book being in England and apparently coming from his time period. The “Dee Connection” to the manuscript is said to lay in that he either fabricated the book or had purchased it at some point (Dee is said to have had the largest collection of books in the country for his time period) and sold it nearing the end of his life. It should be noted, however, that historians who have studied the life of the illustrious Dr. Dee have never come across conclusive proof to indicate that he had ever owned the tome. It is also worth noting that Dr. John Dee was implicated by renowned horror author H.P. Lovecraft as having introduced the terrifying but non-existent grimoire, The Necronomicon, to the Western World.

Without a historical record to authenticate the book, loaded down with a seemingly indecipherable script written by an unknown individual or individuals, it is possible to see The Voynich Manuscript as an elaborate but successful hoax. But to what end? Why would a writer, likely an educated person, go to such length to create a book of such complexity if it served no practical purpose? While it is possible that it is merely a perverse joke that still mocks us from the 13th century, there is still a devoted following of researchers, both professional and amateur who wish to decode the text. It currently resides at Oxford University, a location it will likely remain until someone has the intellectual acumen or blind luck to break the strangle-hold of mystery that a book can hold over us.

Burning Inside

There is a cruel irony in the demise of a city by the very thing that gave birth to it. Few established locations can claim such a fate.

Perhaps no one who assisted in the settling of Centralia, Pennsylvania in 1884 could have foreseen it’s downfall. For much of it’s short history, the borough of Centralia had lived on the mining of Anthracite. This high-carbon but low-impurity form of coal was difficult to burn and hard to put out and became one of the life-bloods of Pennsylvania (up to 1% of the state’s income at a point.)

The official story on how Centralia went from a population of over 1,000 residents to under 10 living people less than fifty years later is nearly impossible to believe. But like so many other small towns of the time, Centralia had dealt with it’s refuse through the simple expedience of man’s oldest discovery: Fire.

Located just outside of the town proper, the landfill that held the garbage of Centralia was located in a pit that had previously housed a strip mine with access to a seam of Anthracite. While no one is exactly certain of the precise details, it is known that in May of 1962, the trash held in the pit was burned. The official account of Centralia’s demise is due to the town not providing a proper barrier to keep the flames of the trash-heap out of and away from the entrance to the mine. This oversight allowed for fires from the landfill to enter in to the seam and ignite the entire Anthracite vein.

Where this a Hollywood production, the entirety of Centralia would have instantly ignited into a massive volcano or geyser of white-hot flame. The reality of the issue, however, is far more insidious. It did not take long for the town’s residents to become aware of the problem that was quite literally growing beneath their feet. All early efforts to extinguish the flames had proven fruitless or stifled by local governmental beauracracy. Early after the incident, temperatures in the coal seam were recorded at over 170ºF. In 1974, a local adolescent boy was nearly killed when a sink hole, later measured at nearly 150 feet deep, opened beneath his feet while he was playing in his back yard.

By the beginning of the 1980’s, a slow Exodus from Centralia began. The United States government put aside over $40 million for the town’s residents to relocate. The final blow for Centralia came in 1992 when the government of Pennsylvania claimed eminent domain and began demolition.

All that remains of Centralia, Pennsylvania today are a handful of ruined buildings, a few residents squatting on what once was their home property, clouds of smoke from the earth, and carbon monoxide. The borough still draws a handful of visitors, however. Curious individuals, thrill-seekers (aside from the obvious environmental dangers, there are apocryphal rumors that the city is now haunted) and fans of the film Silent Hill, whose fictious location was conceived by screenwriter Roger Avery had researched the town’s history.

If you would like more information, please look in to TheTownThatWas.com, a documentary detailing this modern ghost town, it’s uncertain future and precarious present.

A Quick Visual Update

As of now, the blog roughly resembles what I want it to resemble. If all goes according to plan, I should have my first real entry up and running by the end of the week.

Statement of Intent

We've all heard the old adage that "There's nothing new under the sun." While this may be true, it's astonishing to me how many little things slip through the cracks of human knowledge.

With the advent of The Internet as a world-wide power, information of every sort has become available to the world on an unprecedented scale. Yet like the days prior to Google and Firefox, some bits of life have been relegated to the more neglected or uncomfortable corners of consciousness. This is where I come in.

Ever since childhood I have been drawn to the bits of knowledge left behind by the mainstream. The obscure, unsavory, or just plain peculiar have fueled my imagination. It's likely not suprising that the study and search for those topics has, to one degree or another, consumed my private life.

It is with this spirit in mind that I have embarked on this project. I have few goals per se; my primary interests are disseminating "weirdness" back in to the world (if only a piece at a time) and hopefully entertaining my readers at the same time.

At the same time, please understand that I intend to treat these subjects with as much respect and reverence as I am capable of providing.

With that, I can only ask that you "stay tuned" and, if you are so inclined, provide me with constructive feedback.

Just To Let You Know....

None of what you are seeing is permenant. The reason I have posted this is to have a basic frame on which to start my blog. Keeping in mind that I haven't made a serious attempt to keep a blog in some years, much less one that is essentially going to be driven by a rough format, this location is to be considered a "work-in-progress" at all times.

So within the next few days expect a serious entry or two, and likely some visual revisions.

Thanks for stopping by!

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