[MFogleman]

Readers may also find the Copiale cipher[1] interesting. It has been around since the 1700s, unsolved, until 2011 when a team figured out (with the help of a computer or 2) it was a homophonic german cipher, and decoded the whole thing.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copiale_cipher [2]https://www.wired.com/2012/11/ff-the-manuscript/

[Igelau]

> an initiation ritual in which the candidate is asked to read a blank piece of paper and, on confessing inability to do so, is given eyeglasses and asked to try again, and then again after washing the eyes with a cloth, followed by an "operation" in which a single eyebrow hair is plucked.

For the amount of time and effort it took to extract this secret, that's a hilarious letdown.

[082349872349872]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIC_cipher

> "Although certainly not as complex or secure as modern computer operated stream ciphers or block ciphers, in practice messages protected by it resisted all attempts at cryptanalysis by at least the NSA from its discovery in 1953 until Häyhänen's defection in 1957."

Wonder how it compares to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitaire_(cipher)

====

    On the mountain was a treasure
    Buried deep beneath a stone
    And the valley people swore
    They'd have it for their very own

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sUtaMbQmpk

[esrauch]

Eh, seems about the expected result to me.

[ilzmastr]

Great link. The scientist Kevin Knight that did much of the cracking has written about Voynich as well: https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W11-1511.pdf