09/05/2024

Early Japanese Syllabary Table in Milanese Archives

Vigenère's Traicté des chiffre printed a Japanese syllabary in the addenda. A similar printed Japanese syllabary table is found in Milanese archives. Although it is filed with ciphers from the second half of the fifteenth century, I think it is contemporary with Vigenere. (If it were from the period of the Sforzas, it would be a sensational discovery, because standard history teaches that Japan had no direct contact with the western world until the 1540s.) I now added a section "Kana Syllabary in Milanese Archives" in "Vigenere's Introduction of Japanese Characters in Europe".