Gibberish! Experts mock medieval ‘codebreaker’

A UNIVERSITY has pulled a research paper from its website after scholars mocked the author’s claim he had decoded a mysterious medieval text.

Dr Gerard Cheshire declared he had translated the swirly symbols of a manuscript that has baffled experts for centuries – including Alan Turing.

The University of Bristol researcher said he had established the 15th century Voynich Manuscript was written in an ‘extinct proto-Romance’ language which had parallels to modern languages such as Spanish, French and Italian. But his claims, published in the journal Romance Studies, have raised eyebrows among linguistics experts.

Lisa Fagin Davis, a US-based paleographer, said: ‘Sorry, folks, “proto-Romance language” is not a thing. This is just more aspirational, circular, self-fulfilling nonsense.’

She said she had tried and failed to reproduce his results years ago, adding: ‘It’s gibberish. The methodology falls apart.’ Last night Bristol University insisted Dr Cheshire’s paper was ‘ entirely the author’s own work’ and ‘not affiliated’ with the university.

But a defiant Dr Cheshire said last night: ‘The manuscript is an unusual case... which means that some people find it difficult to let go of preconceptions even when presented with new evidence.

‘In time, scholars will publish papers based on translation of the manuscript using my solution, so the small tide of resistance is bound to wane.’