A New Book on Shorthand, Ciphers, and Universal Language by D.P.J.A. Scheers

I got a pdf version of a new book Zealous with Language and Ciphers: Shorthand, ciphers and universal language around the 17th century (independently published on 9 March 2021; 261 pp.) by D.P.J.A. Scheers (Google).

When studying ciphers, one often encounters references to universal language or shorthand.
I once mentioned Athanasius Kircher's Polygraphia nova (1663). This work is more about universal language ("lingua universalis") than cryptography, and was to allow people to exchange letters without speaking each other's language (Wikipedia). John Wilkins, the author of Mercury, the first book in English about cryptography, also proposed a universal language in a 1668 work (Wikipedia). Leibniz, who corresponded with John Wallis, also had an interest in universal language. Similarity between code and universal language can be seen in, e.g., a dictionary for Kircher's universal language shown below.

Regarding shorthand, it is well-known that Samuel Pepys' diary is written in shorthand, which looks like a cipher and is sometimes called as such.

Text in shorthand looks like a ciphertext to untrained eyes (examples may be found in Cipherbrain), and may be used to conceal the content.

Zealous with Language and Ciphers has chapters I - Abbreviations and Numerals, II - Shorthand, III - The Development of Universal Language, IV - Universal languages, V - Characteristics and decipherments, VI - Other Language Developments, plus many appendices.
 

I have to say I know little of shorthand and universal language. So, of these topics, I can only say that the chapters include many names (including all I mentioned above and more) and many illustrations. The short Chapter VI deals with sign language and international maritime flag signals. The latter is, of course, related to code. I'm interested in whether "universal language" is possible with sign language.
 

Some of the appendices are directed to ciphers:
Pages 194-220 deal with "Urquhart's ciphers" presented in Cipherbrain.
Pages 220-227 deal with ciphers described by Porta.
Pages 228-231 deal with "Lodwick's "The Lords Prayer"".
Pages 232-234 deal with "Jane Seager's text from The Divine Prophecies of the Ten Sibills."
Pages 242-244 deal with "the secret numbers of Thoth".
Page 245 deals with "Unsolved cipher 1681 Dr. Wallis". Actually, this was (re-)solved by Malcolm V. Hay (1934) (see my article).
Etc.
 

What interested me is the author's map of the route of development of Italian ciphers (Mantua, Modena, Florence, Siena, Genoa) created from Aloys Meister's book by examining "the dating of the published letters, the 'cipher intelligence', the type of symbols, properties, length, usage of nulls and other relevant aspects." I wish there were more discussions to support his map. I look forward to "a future publication" the author seems to plan (p.41, n.89).