Solution of the Voynich Manuscript: A Liturgical Manual for the Endura Rite of the Cathari Heresy, the Cult of Isis

Leo Levitov's 1987 book makes a specific claim about the Voynich manuscript, the medieval codex that has resisted every attempted decipherment since its rediscovery in 1912. He argues it is a liturgical manual for the Endura, the Cathar deathbed rite, written in a Flemish-based dialect, and that Catharism itself was a continuation of the ancient cult of Isis.

Levitov lays out his method in the book. He identifies a recurring pattern-word he reads as ISIS and builds a phonetic transliteration of the manuscript's script from it, then offers translated passages to support the liturgical reading. He treats the manuscript's resistance to decipherment as consistent with the Inquisition's near-total destruction of Cathar literature, which he argues left few records to check his reading against.

Voynich manuscript specialists have not accepted this decipherment. Linguist Jacques Guy and researcher Dennis Stallings published detailed critiques in the years after publication, citing the manuscript's later radiocarbon dating, which places it after Catharism's suppression, and the absence of a clear French or Occitan textual signature. The claim is catalogued here as Levitov's argument, not as an established reading of the manuscript.