During the Second World War thanks to the talents of our code breakers at Bletchley Park here in the UK and to the oft times forgotten heroes of the Resistance throughout Europe, particularly in France, a good number of lives were spared and, most probably, the long and arduous six year war was considerably shorter than would otherwise have been the case.

Last year Facebook users encountered status updates from their female friends that read “I like it on the floor,” or “Black,” and no one had any clue what the cryptic status updates were really about. Later people learned that the colors were supposed to signify the girls’ bra color of choice and pique male interest thereby leading to their awareness of breast cancer month which is October. Umm, ok. That is some shaky logic to say the least. Ok, I’m done with political correctness - this is one of the dumbest awareness campaigns I have ever seen.

Most of the purchases were pretty standard fare for those who deal in antiquarian books and documents, but as he sorted through the manuscripts, Voynich noticed one particular book which was very unusual - very unusual indeed!