06/12/2023

A French Cipher Possibly from the Earliest Period: De la Tremoille's(?) Cipher

I tentatively labelled "De la Tremoille's(?) Cipher (ca.1520-1521)" to one cipher in "Decipherment of Hitherto Unsolved Historical Ciphers (by George Lasry)" the other day. The attribution to de la Tremoille was merely because most of the letters in clear in BnF fr.3029 are his, and the dating was taken from the dates of other letters in BnF fr.3092. But if this were really from 1520-1521, it would be the earliest extant French letters in cipher letter. I changed the dating to (??1520-1521) to show the question is open.
To help dating, I added some deciphered text in the article.
The reference to the war in Hungary in one specimen may refer to the Turkish invasion in 1520-1566. So, this does not help update the dating.
In another specimen, the queen mentioned in "sa tante et puis la royne d'Angleterre" may refer to Henry VIII's queen, but may also refer to Elizabeth I. The latter fits "Cardinal ... en Flandres", which may refer to the Cardinal of Granvelle (created in 1561).
Historians' help is needed to read the deciphered text.

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