Ooohh I love a mystery. And I love a bit of outsider art. This book, known as The Voynich Manuscript after the rare book dealer who discovered it, appears to combine those two things perfectly.

The book is thought to have been created by hand some six centuries ago. It was found by Voynich in Rome, 1912, and features botanical drawings, astronomical charts and dancing female figures, alongside reams of text. The tantalizing bit? Despite the best efforts of experts and code breakers, not a word of the text has ever been deciphered.

The colours – soft greens and faded reds that harmonize perfectly – would make a wonderful colour scheme for a certain sort of old house. And the shapes remind me of some of Neisha Crosland’s elegant curling tendril patterns. I once had the pleasure of interviewing her about her notebooks, and some had just this free-yet-intricate feel.

You can read more about the discovery of the manuscript, and find a link to the full manuscript in Yale’s online archive, here.