THE FRIAR AND THE CIPHER : ROGER BACON AND THE UNSOLVED MYSTERY OF THE MOST UNUSUAL MANUSCRIPT IN THE WORLD
Book ID/图书代码： 06239006B00198
English Summary/英文概要： A compulsively readable account of the most mysterious manuscript in the world, one that has stumped the world’s greatest scholars and codebreakers.
The Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious tome discovered in 1912 by the English book dealer Wilfrid Michael Voynich, has puzzled scholars for a century. A small six inches by nine inches, but over two hundred pages long, with odd illustrations of plants, astrological diagrams, and naked women, it is written in so indecipherable a language and contains so complicated a code that mathematicians, book collectors, linguists, and historians alike have yet to solve the mysteries contained within. However, in The Friar and the Cipher, the acclaimed bibliophiles and historians Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone describe, in fascinating detail, the theory that Roger Bacon, the noted thirteenth-century, pre-Copernican astronomer, was its author and that the perplexing alphabet was written in his hand. Along the way, they explain the many proposed solutions that scholars have put forth and the myriad attempts at labeling the manuscript’s content, from Latin or Greek shorthand to Arabic numerals to ancient Ukrainian to a recipe for the elixir of life to good old-fashioned gibberish. As we journey across centuries, languages, and countries, we meet a cast of impassioned characters and case-crackers, including, of course, Bacon, whose own personal scientific contributions, Voynich author or not, were literally and figuratively astronomical.
The Friar and the Cipher is a wonderfully entertaining and historically wide-ranging book that is one part The Code Book, one part Possession, and one part The Da Vinci Code—and will appeal to bibliophiles and laypeople alike.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 该书是一本关于世界上最神秘的手稿的书,具有很高的可读性.它难住了世界上最伟大的学者和密码破译者们。Voynich手稿,是在1912年被英国书商Wilfrid Michael Voynich发现的一本神秘的书, 它使学者们为之困惑了百年之久.大小只不过6英尺*9英尺这么大,但是却有200页那么长,书中有奇怪的植物的插页、有关占星术的图表、裸体的女人。书中所用的语言是如此的难以辨认，它还包含了一个复杂的Voynich式密码---数学家、藏书家、语言学家、历史家之类的人至今都还在研究里面的秘密。然而在Friar and the Cipher这本书中，著名藏书家和历史学家Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone用精彩的语言详尽的描述了Roger Bacon理论—它由著名的13世纪前哥白尼天文学家Bacon所著，而且这些复杂的字母表是由他手写而成。书中，他们解释了许多学者提出的解决方法以及试图获得手稿内容的无数种尝试：从拉丁或希腊速写到阿拉伯数字到古代乌克兰语到长生不老药的处方到有益的过时的乱语。我们经历了几百年以及语言的变迁和不同的国度，但是我们碰到了许多热情的人，得到了热中于钻研这些东西的人的帮助，当然其中也包括Bacon,他个人所作出的科学贡献—无论他是否是Voynic手稿的作者，都是无论在文学上还是在数字上无法估量的。The Friar and the Cipher是一本很好的覆盖了娱乐、历史很多方面的书籍，可以说，一部分是密码书，一部分是财产，一部分是达芬奇密码---它也将会吸引藏书家和外行人来阅读。
Awards/获奖情况：
About the Author/作者介绍： Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone are a husband-and-wife writing team and authors of Out of the Flames, a Booksense 76 Selection. They have also written three books on their book-collecting pursuits: Used and Rare, Slightly Chipped, and Warmly Inscribed.
Format:TRADE PAPERBACK
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：
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