'Prophet of God' claims mysterious manuscript's code has been cracked

It's known as the world's most mysterious manuscript - an illustrated tome that's baffled experts for centuries.

Written in bizarre 'alien' characters and illustrated with sketches no one can understand, the book's author is unknown and it has no official title.

Cryptographers, historians and bibliophiles have examined the 15th Century text. But so far no-one has worked out what it means.

Incomprehensible: The manuscript has left experts scratching their heads for centuries

Wilfrid Michael Voynich, who the manuscript has come to be named after, examining rare books

Even the elite cryptologists at the U.S. National Security Agency drew a blank after spending years trying to decode it in the 1950s.

The tome has come to be known as the Voynich Manuscript, although librarians at Yale University's rare books vault in Connecticut simply refer to it as manuscript MS 408.

But now a businessman from Finland has claimed he's uncovered its hidden secrets - with help from a higher power.

Viekko Latvala says he's a 'prophet of God' and said the manuscript is a work 'sonic waves and vocal syllables' and which contains a prophecy.

He described it as primarily a record of the writer's plants, perhaps to keep track of them for scientific or medicinal purposes .

Business associate Ari Ketola said: 'The book is a life work and scientific publication of medicine that would be still useful today.

Drawing a blank: A page of the mysterious Voynich Manuscript

'The writer was a scientist of plants, pharmacy, astrology and astronomy. It contains... prophesy for some decades and hundreds of years ahead from the time it was created.'

Mr Ketola refused to explain how Mr Latvala deciphered it, saying: 'Mr Latvala said that no one "normal human" can decode it, because there is no code or method to read this text, it's a channel language of prophecy.

'This type of persons are most rare to exist, yet they have always been on face of the Earth through millenniums up to today... and Mr Veikko Latvala has had this gift of mercy last 20 years.

Coded: The book is covered with strange illustrations no one can understand

THE MANUSCRIPT 'TRANSLATED'

Mr Latvala provided the following 'translation' which describes what he called plant 16152, which he said can be found today in Ethiopia: 'The name of the flower is Heart of Fire. 'It makes the skin beautiful when made as an ointment. 'The oil is pressed from the buds. 'This ointment is used for the wrinkles. 'Is suitable for the kidneys and the head, as the flower prevents inflammations, is antibiotic. 'Plant is 10 centimeters by its height. 'It grows on hot and dry slants. 'The plant is bright green by its color.'



'The language of this book is quite twisted. The sound syllables are a mixture of Spanish and Italian, also mixed with the language this man used to speak himself.

'His own language was a rare Babylonian dialect that was spoken in a small area in Asia.'

The author of the Voynich Manuscript did not know how to write in any extant language, Mr Ketola said, so he had to create his own alphabet and vocabulary.

'This man could not write any language so he had to invent a writing he can read or pronounce himself,' he said.

The manuscript is housed deep in the vaults of Yale's Beincke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New Haven.

It is referred to as the Voynich Manuscript after the Polish-American bookseller Wilfrid Voynich, who acquired it in 1912 before it was donated to the Ivy League institution in 1969.