Tag

Historical Manuscripts

All articles tagged with #historical manuscripts

AI Cracks a 400-Year-Old Borg Cipher, Revealing Hidden Medieval Remedies
technology1 month ago

AI Cracks a 400-Year-Old Borg Cipher, Revealing Hidden Medieval Remedies

AI speeds up deciphering encrypted historical texts—like the Vatican's Borg cipher—by transcribing and decoding handwriting and symbols into digital texts, uncovering astonishing remedies and secrets once kept in archives. The Descrypt project and tools like Transkribus aim to unify transcription and decryption, enabling researchers (and the public) to unlock coded letters, diplomatic notes, and even unknown scripts, potentially rewriting parts of history and expanding access to ancient writing systems.

Proteins from a 1531 medical text hint at Renaissance hair cures and odd remedies
science5 months ago

Proteins from a 1531 medical text hint at Renaissance hair cures and odd remedies

A proteomics analysis of Bartholomäus Vogtherr’s 1531 medical manuals recovered 111 proteins from the pages, including traces that could match plants (beech, watercress, rosemary) and animals (lizard, tortoise shell, hippopotamus). Notably, protein near hair-growth recipes suggests readers experimented with lizard heads for hair loss and hippo-derived ingredients for dental/mouth issues, illustrating how Renaissance readers tested unconventional cures and shedding light on early modern household science, per a study in the American Historical Review.