Many of my design clients are editors, authors, curators, or scholars. Unable-or unwilling-to sell the strange manuscript in his lifetime, it became part of his estate, later to be sold to another dealer, who ultimately gave it to Yale UniversityвЂ™s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1969. Its history includes centuries of intrigue, subterfuge, political upheavals, and deception, which brought it to its namesake, the rare books dealer Wilfrid Michael Voynich, at the start of the 20th century. Scientific analysis of its physical properties dates the manuscriptвЂ™s creation to the late 15th century. A wealth of information is contained in this roughly six-by-nine-inch book, but neither its language (affectionately referred to as вЂњVoynicheseвЂќ) nor its enigmatic illustrations have ever been deciphered. The Voynich Manuscript contains more than 200 parchment pages filled with densely packed, beautiful calligraphy intertwined with brightly colored botanic illustrations tiny, meandering human figures and convoluted, symmetrical designs. Occasionally I find it difficult to understand the complex subject matter of a book that Wordesign has been commissioned to produce, so I took heart in learning that, inВ this case, I was not alone.

The book would include the first full-size reproduction of the entire manuscript, along with a collection of essays that explore the manuscript from different perspectives. In 2014, Yale University Press approached Wordesign Services to copyedit, design, and produce a facsimile edition of the Voynich Manuscript, a very old, mysterious, beautifully illustrated text. The Absolutely Unique Challenges of Publishing the Voynich Manuscript Fascsimile Book

Beinecke library voynich manuscript