The Past World

In the University of Florida library, an interesting manuscript can be found. This manuscript is the New Testament, written around 1250 and bound in leather. It is written in black and brown ink on sheepskin.

The manuscript was stored in three different libraries in Italy during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before being transported to Scotland, where the Signet Library in Edinburgh kept it. It became part of the University of Florida’s collection a hundred years ago.

Different people scribbled on the manuscript’s margins at some point in the Middle Ages. Scribbled in brown letters, we see Roman numerals. The red writing, however, appears to be from the fourteenth century according to the typeface and is mysterious.

Some handwriting forms unreadable words, and others appear to include a code of repeated letters. There is a list of letters on the penultimate page next to the corresponding numbers. Is it a key to some cryptographic code?

Nothing is known for sure, and no one has yet cracked the code. The library has now put the book in functional digitised form due to demand from libraries, students and researchers worldwide. It’s possible to view the electronic version of the book here.

Now you can try to solve the password. Or just enjoy a beautiful version of the New Testament from 1250.