What is the title of this rare and unique book?
The price of it runs from $100-500. It's a strange book from perhaps 1900 full of drawings and diagrams of creatures, and it's written in a made-up language. The title is long, and all one word, I think, but I can't remember it! Any guesses?
I believe you are referring to the Voynich Manuscript. This book has never been able to be successfully translated. It is named for its discoverer an antique book dealer named Wilfrid Voynich who discovered it in 1912 among a collection of ancient manuscripts kept in a villa near Rome. Wilfred thought it was composed somewhere in the 13th century. He based this estimate on the inks, calligraphy and vellum used in the construction of the manuscript. Later experts revised his opinion and have put forth that it was made sometime between the 15th and 17th centuries.
The earliest reference to the manuscript in 1666 in a letter from a rector at the University of Prague to a jesuit scholar.
The last invididual owner of the book was HP Kraus a rare book dealer who purchased it for 24,500 dollars. He later donated the book to Yale University where it currently resides in their rare book collection.
The book is 235 pages in length and about 6x9 inches.
The first and largest section contains 130 pages of plant drawings with accompanying text, and is called the Botanical division.
The second contains 26 pages of drawings, obviously astrological and astronomical in nature.
The third section contains 4 pages of text and 28 drawings, which would appear to be biological in nature.
The fourth division contains 34 pages of drawings, which are pharmaceutical in nature.
The last section of the Manuscript contains 23pages of text arranged in short paragraphs, each beginning with a star. The last page (the 24th of this division) contains the Key only.