22/05/2021

Colbert de Croissy Switched to Numerical Cipher in Italy, but Reverted to Figures with Diacritics in London

I made several additions, mainly related to Colbert, to "Ciphers Early in the Reign of Louis XIV" and "French Ciphers during the Reign of Louis XIII" from the Baluze collection in BnF. In this update, the most interesting is the changes of ciphers used by Colbert de Croissy. He used cipher consisting of figures with diacritics, typical in French ciphers at the time, in 1659 (DE=28) and 1660 (DE=42~) when he was Intendant of Alsace. But he switched to a purely numerical cipher (1660-1661) during his mission to Rome (DE=91). He used another numerical cipher in Cleves in 1666 (DE=151), but reverted to figures with diacritics (1668-1674) in his London embassy (DE=68). Somehow, specimens of purely numerical ciphers in France are often related to Italy.

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