Mystery Timeline｜1185–1602
Yokai and strange tales from the age of the samurai, alongside the mysterious books and legends of medieval Europe, from the Kamakura period to the Warring States era.
One of the largest medieval manuscripts in the world, made at a monastery in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) in the early 13th century. It weighs about 75 kg. Because it contains a large picture of the devil, it is called the "Devil's Bible," and a legend says a monk wrote it in one night with the devil's help.
The general name for European books of magic recording how to summon angels, demons and spirits and how to make amulets and magic circles. They spread from the Middle Ages to the early modern period as manuscripts and cheap printed books. Famous examples include the "Key of Solomon" and the "Lemegeton," and they became the model for the spellbooks of fantasy fiction.
A 15th-century manuscript filled with writing no one can read and strange illustrations of plants that do not exist and naked women. Discovered by the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, it remains undeciphered despite theories of a cipher, an artificial language or a hoax.
A Latin book of magic handed down in 16th-century England. It was owned by John Dee, a scholar who served Elizabeth I, who is recorded as having communicated with angels to decipher it. Long thought lost, copies were rediscovered in 1994.
A book of myths and history handed down among the K'iche' Maya of Guatemala in Central America. It records the creation of the world, how humans were made from maize, and the hero twins who fought the gods of the underworld in a ball game. It is considered the most important book preserving Maya mythology.
A 448-page manuscript written in an unknown script, held by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Its name comes from its former location, Rohonc (today Rechnitz, Austria). It has Christian and pagan illustrations, but its script remains undeciphered.
A collection of prophetic verses by Nostradamus, a 16th-century French physician and astrologer. In Japan it became a social phenomenon when the verse "In the year 1999, seventh month, from the sky will come a great King of Terror" was interpreted as a prophecy of humanity's destruction.
An alchemical picture scroll several meters long named after the 15th-century English alchemist George Ripley. It depicts the making of the philosopher's stone in symbolic pictures of dragons, birds and alchemists, with verses. About twenty copies from the 16th–17th centuries survive.
