De Graeco codice bibliothecae academicae Wratislaviensis Germanice exarato (sic!)

Abstract

The anonymous manuscript preserved in Wrocław University Library with shelf number Akc.1948/183 is rather beautiful thanks to its neat calligraphy and its illustrations, but it is also very strange. Though described as a Greek codex in the library inventories and indeed written in the Greek alphabet, its text seems to make no sense. Like certain other early modern manuscripts such as the copiale cipher, the Rohonc codex or the famous Voynich manuscript, it is encrypted. However, what distinguishes Akc.1948/183 from these otherwise similar codices is the way it purports to be in Greek, so that the vast majority of readers do not even notice that it is ciphered. Such a strategy was successful. The Pseudo-Greek codex deceived readers for a few centuries, despite the fact that the cipher was relatively simple.