28/01/2019

Granvelle-Saint Mauris Cipher (1548)

I added a section Granvelle-Saint Mauris Cipher (1548) in my article "Ciphers during the Reign of Emperor Charles V". This is another example of a vowel indicator system. I took pains in reconstructing this cipher, but it appears the cipher is already described by David L. Potter (but I could not find his "Appendix 3" online).

25/01/2019

Antonio de Leyva's Ciphers (1525, 1527)

I added Antonio de Leyva's Ciphers from 1525 and 1527 in
"Ciphers during the Reign of Emperor Charles V" and
"Tracing the Origin of Vowel Indicators in Spanish Ciphers".
Leyva's Cipher (1527) is the earliest cipher with vowel indicators known to me.
I was looking for a specimen using Leyva's cipher used with Lope de Soria from about 1528-1535, but instead stumbled on this earlier example.

21/01/2019

Unsolved Spanish Ciphers in French Archives (1497-1504)

BnF Espagnol 318 (Gallica) includes undeciphered letters.
f.122, no.95 A letter of 8 January 1497
f.120-121, no.94 Viceroy of Sicily to Ferdinand, 27 April 1503
f.118, no.93 (p.448 of pdf) Lorenzo Suarez to Ferdinand and Isabella, Venice, 24 February 1504

(Ff.5-6 and f.116 employ known ciphers but are left undeciphered. See "Spanish Ciphers during the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella".

15/01/2019

Two more Unsolved Spanish Ciphers

I made two additions to "Unsolved Historical Ciphers":
Postscript to King Ferdinand's Letter to his Ambassador in Rome (1498) from Parisi (2004) and
A Spanish Letter (1504?) from PARES. There are many repetitive patterns (like "16e", "8ρ", "ogθ+", etc.) and it does not seem to be a very complicated system.

12/01/2019

Duke of Manchester's Code

I updated "Diplomatic Codes after the Glorious Revolution" by adding a section "Reconstructed Version". I found a photocopy of a reconstructed code from a book that has been in the paper stack on my desk for many years is substantially the same as one preserved in Manchster Papers.

Codebreaking without Knowing the Language

I uploaded "Is Codebreaking Possible without Knowing the Language?".
I also updated "John Davys and the Art of Deciphering" mentioned therein (by mainly correcting grammar and adding links).

05/01/2019

Ciphers in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella

A substantial update have been made in "Spanish Ciphers during the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella". My understanding of Bergenroth needed corrections in view of the original ciphertexts in the Spanish archives now available online. (It should be noted that Bergenroth describes combined use of cipher and nomenclature as using "two different keys"; there is reason to justify such a treatment.) Although the most important changes are done, the overhaul is still ongoing and further updates may be reported here.

03/01/2019

Three Vatican Ciphers Solved

My new article "Identifying Italian ciphers from continuous-figure ciphertexts (1593)" has been released online (Cryptologia). For the time being, you can get it free here.
I added a reference to this in related articles:
"Variable-Length Symbols in Italian Numerical Ciphers"
"Unsolved Historical Ciphers"
"Ciphertext-only Attack on "Vatican Challenge" Ciphers (1625, 1628)"

My solution is only preliminary. I hope someone will complete the solution and tell me what is written.