Exactly what it says in the title. I've seen this referenced alot of places, and took the time to download a .pdf version of it. Everything I've read suggests it's an elaborate hoax, but why would someone create something so elaborate to trick people? Is there any possibility that it's a real, if misunderstood document? Seriously, I would just like some good, well curated information about what this is, or what it could be. Thanks very much.
EDIT: For anyone else who stumbles here who might be interested, the manuscript has it's own subreddit at r/voynich
There's always room for more discussion but you may be interested in this post: Here
I do want to warn you though that the source for that person's answer is from a podcast written by an author and writer who does not appear to be a historian but it an interesting theory and he cites several sources.
Nobody knows for sure, but a fellow named Stephen Bax, a professor of applied linguistics from Open University, UK (and previously from the U. of Bedfordshire) has done a provisional partial decoding based on... well, based on a lot of things: a combination of linguistic analysis, looking at the plants, some astronomy, etc. He talks about it all here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpZD_3D8_WQ
His website has a bunch of work on the subject, too: https://stephenbax.net/
Now granted, nobody knows for sure what the VM is or if it's anything at all, but Bax' work seems to be producing some results. Between that Youtube video and his site, though, there are a ton of interesting details (some speculative) and a lot of good deductions.