Jessica Scott (Dunn) on a New Voynich Interpretation
- 31 August 2026
- 0 Comment
- 10 Min Read
Editorial Introduction
Few medieval manuscripts have attracted as much fascination, speculation and frustration as the Voynich Manuscript. Its unfamiliar script, strange botanical illustrations and enigmatic diagrams have resisted generations of attempts to explain what the book contains, why it was created, or even what language lies behind its text.
In this interview, Jessica Scott (Dunn), author of The Voynich Manuscript: The Cipher and The Compendium, discusses the interpretation she has developed after years of studying the manuscript. She argues that the Voynich is not a conventional cipher or European herbal, but a highly structured medical and cosmological compendium whose abbreviated language draws principally upon medieval Latin, while its intellectual framework incorporates traditions that she associates with Tibetan medicine, Buddhism, celestial timing and a much wider world of botanical knowledge.
Scott (Dunn) also explains what she regards as the decisive breakthrough in her research: the possibility that a manuscript written by a European hand preserves ideas drawn from several cultural and medical traditions far beyond western Europe. Her interpretation challenges conventional approaches to the Voynich Manuscript and proposes a strikingly different explanation for its plants, astronomical imagery, bathing figures and apparently repetitive text.
What emerges is not simply another attempt to identify individual Voynich words, but an ambitious argument about how the manuscript should be read as a whole — as a work concerned with healing, cosmology, ritual knowledge and, ultimately, humanity’s search for meaning.
The Interview
Jessica Scott (Dunn): I’ve been fascinated by languages, puzzles, and ancient cultures since childhood. In fact, I used to invent languages, copy scripts, and dream of being an anthropologist or archaeologist. When I first encountered the Voynich Manuscript in a documentary as a teenager, I was struck that it was undeciphered.
Life took me into security work and raising a family, but in October 2023 I saw another documentary and realised the manuscript still hadn’t been solved. It was at that point that I told myself I would solve it no matter how long it took me. Once I began studying it seriously, the manuscript’s strange plants and unusual script made it impossible to step away. I studied it every day, sometimes very early in the morning. You know, I have always liked medieval manuscripts – books, in general, really. I can say with certainty that accomplishing this gargantuan task has changed my life for the better – it’s helped me understand and appreciate things I hadn’t before.
Jessica Scott (Dunn): Because it is not a single tradition; it is an amalgam of several. Its language blends medieval Latin and a splash of Swiss German. Its medical system fuses European Galenic humors with Tibetan Buddhist Sowa Rigpa. Its cosmology is drawn from Kalachakra Tantra. Its iconography reflects the Yunnanese indigenous Bai cultural architecture from the former Kingdom of Dali. Its botanical content spans Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, China, the Himalayan arc, and Southeast Asia – including the islands. The pottery is Tibetan, Indian, and Burmese. So, as you can see, it is a mesh of various cultural spheres.
Most attempts to decipher it assume it should behave like a European herbal or a cipher; however, the Voynich Manuscript is a procedural compendium whose meaning only emerges when its various systems are read together. Without recognizing that composite nature, the text appears chaotic – when, in fact, it is highly structured. I believe the important takeaway is that the abbreviated text is linguistically layered in meaning – the author of the manuscript was gifted in that he used terminology that could have multiple meanings depending on the context – for example, the ort9 abbreviation represents hortus, ortus, ortas, etc. Those Latin terms each mean more than several things at the same time – hortus refers to a cultivated garden, ortus means the rising, dawn, spring; and ortas describes things that have risen, come forth, or are born. So, as you can see, the author of the manuscript was able to collapse quite a bit of dense meaning into a seemingly redundant script. I can see why so many thought it was Leonardo Da Vinci who wrote it – he was a genius afterall.
The decipherment is quite controversial because it challenges long-standing academic expectations about what medieval manuscripts are supposed to be, and the manuscript itself was already controversial long before my interpretation because it exposes how rigid scholarly frameworks and Eurocentric assumptions can prevent researchers from recognizing evidence outside familiar boundaries – a mindset that has historically derailed innovation and delayed discovery. I do hope that my work widens our understanding by showing how much innovation becomes possible once we let go of rigid expectations and allow ourselves to see evidence that falls outside such inhibitive frameworks.
GET YOUR COPY
Jessica Scott (Dunn): My central argument is that the manuscript is a coherent medical-cosmological compendium written in a compressed medieval Latin dialect with Swiss German influence. It is organized into two major sections: the Curatorium – the botanical, humoral, and electuary system – and the Codex Constellarium Aster – the celestial timing and star-humor system. What is most surprising is it reveals its actual name – Liber Talis – the Book of Suchness.
Its structure is governed by ordinal pagination, a dawn-anchored temporal system that determines when oils, seeds, electuaries, and elixirs may be prepared or administered. Its purpose is to integrate humoral medicine, celestial timing, and metaphysical Tibetan Buddhist Suchness into a single therapeutic and spiritual process. Can you believe the herbal pages are not plant-specific? They really aren’t. I was completely surprised by this. They are, in fact, describing the points in the stages rather than describing anything about each plant. I was not expecting that at all.
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Jessica Scott (Dunn): The real breakthrough was recognizing that although the manuscript was written by a European hand, its entire structure, purpose, and medical-cosmological ideas are built on a Far Eastern tradition. Once I understood that, everything else aligned: I could identify which plants to look for, which regions they belonged to, and therefore reconstruct the author’s travel route – where he went, where he stayed longest, and around when he wrote it (ca. 1423). It became clear that he blended Ayurveda, Abyssinian traditional medicine, Chinese traditional medicine, and other lesser-known indigenous ethnobotanical systems, all under the umbrella of Tibetan Sowa Rigpa. This recognition revealed that the Voynich Manuscript is not a cipher in the mathematical sense at all but a Kalachakra-inflected astro-botanical medical compendium created by someone who traveled the globe to assemble a working therapeutic system – which is unheard of during that time period.
Jessica Scott (Dunn): They fit together because the manuscript treats healing as a cosmic-physiological continuum rather than simple herbalism. For example, the plants provide humoral seeds and oils; the oils and electuaries are activated at specific celestial hours; the celestial hours are governed by rising stars, including dawn; dawn is both curative and pathological – the moment when illnesses and cures manifest together – and the electuaries, elixirs, and oils are constructed through ordered labour – but most importantly, the metaphysical Tibetan Buddhist principle of Suchness unifies the entire system.
Folio 66r states that the true purpose is not only healing the body, as that is only the preliminary step. The ultimate aim is liberation from suffering and the attainment of enlightenment, the core of Tibetan Buddhist belief. The bathing women appear not as passive figures but as ritual agents, healers, and transmitters of knowledge. The bathing folios depict the divine feminine as central in the therapeutic and spiritual process, reflecting traditions in which women served as wisdom-bearers and sacred healers.
And, of course, confirmation of the Tibetan Buddhist association can be observed on folio 78v. I was shocked to find the Medicine Buddha – who is called the King of Lapis Lazuli Light – just under the blue paint. Pretty wild, isn’t it? Overall, I think the manuscript becomes a record of shared human continuity – evidence that intellectual curiosity, scientific observation, and spiritual literacy were exchanged across cultures far earlier than we assumed.
Jessica Scott (Dunn): I want readers to understand that the Voynich Manuscript is not an undecipherable curiosity. It is a deliberately constructed, highly disciplined medical and cosmological compendium with a coherent internal language, a stable logical process, and a clear spiritual purpose. It frames the spiritual role of women in a strikingly elevated light. It shows that intellectual curiosity and cross-cultural transmission happened far earlier than we imagine.
Most importantly, it reminds us that despite our differences, we share something deeper – a human drive to understand the world, to heal one another, and to seek meaning beyond suffering. The manuscript is a testament to that shared continuity. I think that’s the most beautiful thing about it.
About the Author
Jessica Scott Dunn is a native Carolinian researcher and writer whose work bridges linguistics, ancient cosmology, and cultural history. She is the author of The Voynich Manuscript: The Cipher and The Compendium, The Decipherment of the Indus Script, and The Sacred Mountain of Haoma and Soma. Her interdisciplinary background spans anthropology, security, auto mechanics, computer science, and social-justice advocacy, informing a uniquely technical and culturally grounded approach to early knowledge systems. She is Pagan, Jewish, and Buddhist, and her scholarship through Glyph Publishing and the Institute for Cultural and Conflict Studies reflects this plural, deeply comparative worldview. She credits her family – vocal, unwavering, and fiercely supportive – for championing her research and shaping her commitment to cultural understanding.
Her research has been presented to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and is currently featured at the NSA’s National Cryptologic Museum.
Book Discussed in this Interview
The Voynich Manuscript: The Cipher and The Compendium by Jessica Scott (Dunn)
The Voynich Manuscript: The Cipher and The Compendium presents Jessica Scott Dunn’s interpretation of the famous undeciphered manuscript as a coherent medical-cosmological work rather than a conventional cipher. She argues that its language, botanical material, celestial timing and spiritual framework form an interconnected system drawing on medieval Latin, Swiss German influence, Tibetan medicine and Buddhist thought.
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Luciano Anastasi
Luciano is the founder of the MedievalHistory platform and the LinkedIn History Enthusiasts Group, where he is dedicated to curating and sharing high-quality medieval history content. His goal is to engage scholars, teachers, students, and enthusiasts by fostering insightful discussions and promoting scholarly resources on topics from medieval warfare and religion to societal transformations and daily life in the Middle Ages.
Luciano is also an active book reviewer, focusing on academic publications related to medieval history. He recently collaborated with Yale University Press to review forthcoming medieval history titles, aiming to deepen educators' and researchers' understanding of the period. Alongside his history endeavors, he has over 40 years of experience in IT leadership roles across various industries, including the public sector, banking, insurance, airlines and consulting, and has contributed to United Nations projects.
With a Master of Arts in Business Process Management, Luciano combines his expertise in IT strategy and governance with his passion for medieval history. He leverages technology to bridge the academic community and the wider public, making historical scholarship more accessible through engaging online content.
