Here are the bizarre books that have appeared in history written in languages that no one can read, or with cryptic characters… that still confuse researchers.
Codex Seraphinianus
This eerie book is filled with hand-drawn and colored illustrations of the surreal, the agnostic, and uses a language no one understands.
The book was published in 1981 by the Italian architect Luigi Serafini and presented by him as a factual scientific work. Scholars have spent years deciphering the book, but without success.
The Book of Soyga
John Dee was a famous mathematician and astronomer at the time of Queen Elizabeth I in 1500. He also had a passion for mystery science and owned the largest library in England.
One day he discovered the “Book of Soyga” (also known as Aldaraia) with over 40,000 words written in mysterious code. He spent more than a year studying this book but still could not decipher the code in it.
After Dee’s death, the Book of Soyga was lost for 500 years. In 1994, two copies of this book appeared in the British library but so far no one has been able to decipher it.
Chronicles of Prodigiorum Ac Ostentorum
This book was written in 1557 by the French humanist Conrad Lycosthenes. This book is like an encyclopedia, recording events from the time of Adam and Eve to the Roman Empire. The book contains more than 1,000 illustrations of the phenomena described, many of which are universally recognized, but also phenomena such as UFOs or sea monsters.
The Ripley Scrolls
The Ripley Scrolls are named after George Ripley, a famous 15th-century monk and alchemist.
The book records how to make the sorcerer’s stone, which is said to be able to turn lead into gold. The original of the book has been lost, but 23 copies have been restored.
The Story of the Vivian Girls
Henry Darger, a janitor in downtown Chicago, has secretly written one of the strangest and most complicated storybooks of all time. His book is very thick, 15,000 pages long, including more than 9 million words. The book is titled The Story of Vivian Girls in the So-called Unknown Realm, of the Glandeco-Angelinian war storm caused by the child slave rebellion.
The book contains more than 300 watercolor illustrations, most of which were created by stitching together images from magazines and newspapers. Some of the final illustrations are shown on sheets of paper more than 3m wide. No one really knows how long it took Darger to write this book.
