31/03/2019

Chinese telegraph code

I updated
"Chinese Telegraph Code (CTC), or A Brief History of Chinese Character Code (CCC)" and
its Japanese version, "電碼――中国の文字コード" by information by Jaemin Chung.

The brief history of Chinese telegraph code described in the Standard Telegraph Codebook is at odds with my descriptions in some details. It seems to be based on limited resources, but I may need to correct my descriptions in future.
For example, it describes 『中国電報新編』 was compiled "by the end of 1880s", while I adopted the year "1881", but it was only based on Japanese Wikipedia.
As another example, it says the title 明密電碼新編 was used from 1929-1937, but I have seen the title in later editions. It further mentions 明密碼電報書 from 商務印書館 in 1941, but I have seen a reference to the title from this publisher as early as 1908. It further mentions 電碼新編 by 交通部電信総局 in 1948, but the version of this title I saw was Taiwanese.

26/03/2019

Guicciardini's Ciphers (ca.1590-1593)

A new article "Florentine Ciphers of Guicciardini (ca.1590-1593)" presents two ciphers of Giacomo Guicciardini from past publications. One is polyphonic and is similar to another polyphonic cipher related to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
In addition to these, reference is made to a cipher of James Guicciardini. James was near the Grand Duke of Tuscany about the same time as Giacomo, but they may be different persons. If I find out anything more, I will update the article.

23/03/2019

Two Further Uses of Spanish Ciphers under Philip II

I updated "Spanish Ciphers during the Reign of Philip II" by Bernard Allaire, "Le décodage de la correspondance chiffrée des diplomates espagnols au XVIe siècle" and Jacques de Monts de Savasse, "Les chiffres de la correspondance diplomatique des ambassadeurs d'Henri IV, en l'année 1590", in Correspondre jadis et naguère. In particular, the former shows use of the cipher Cp.30 earlier than what was considered to be the issuance date of 1581.

22/03/2019

A Flemish Cipher of Emperor Charles V

I added a section of Poupet de Lachaux in "Ciphers during the Reign of Emperor Charles V". It seems to be a Flemish cipher rather than Spanish. (It was before 1527, when the Emperor wrote about merits of a Spanish cipher.

21/03/2019

Klausis Krypto Kolumne

Klausis Krypto Kolumne is a cryptology blog by Kauss Schmeh. It introduces various topics of cryptology, in particular, unsolved cryptograms including historical ones. I have mentioned it many times, and now added more references in:
"Unsolved Historical Ciphers"
"How to Break a Code (Not a Cipher)"
"Nonsecret Code: An Overview of Early Telegraph Codes"
"『大脱走』の暗号 Cipher behind The Great Escape" (in Japanese)