Search For Japanese Patents

The article in Japanese, 昔の特許文献の探し方と戦前の暗号関係の特許（付：戦前の中間処理実例）, describes pre-WWII Japanese patents related to cryptography. My guides to search for patents in J-PlatPat, the database of the Japan Patent Office, was outdated since a major reconstruction of the JPO website in May 2019. Now, I updated the descriptions to reflect the changes.

Diplomatic Ciphers of Ambassadors of Henry III of France

I made a substantial enlargement on
"French ciphers during the Reign of Henry III of France"
by adding about a dozen reconstructed ciphers. Most of them are symbol ciphers similar to each other, but two are numerical ciphers.

Three New Vatican Challenges

A private email made me aware of three new Vatican challenge ciphertexts posted by George Lasry at MTC3. I spent many days on the Part 4 and Part 5 ciphertexts, but my attempts with methods described in, e.g., "Ciphertext-only Attack on "Vatican Challenge" Ciphers (1625, 1628)" have been unsuccessful.
The challenge ciphertexts are as follows:
The Vatican Challenge - Part 3 ... a short message dated "Brusseles 9 Oct. 1721", consisting of one- to four-digit figures.
The Vatican Challenge - Part 4 ... a letter from the bishop of Senigallia to the Secretariat, consisting of figures. The cleartext seems to include the date "Marzo 1536."
The Vatican Challenge - Part 5 ... The cleartext seems to include the date "Aprile 1542." According to the introduction of the challenge, this letter is in a bundle of "Lett. Orig. e cifre del card. Farnese al nunzio, 4 oct 1539-24 nov. 1548. ff. 7-123."


My article "Variable-Length Symbols in Italian Numerical Ciphers" describes various types of Vatican figure ciphers.
I guess the Part 4 cipher is something like the cipher for Cardinal Savello (1583) in that the same digit may have a value of its own and may also be a part of a two-digit symbol with a different value (e.g., "3"="i", "1"="o", but "31"="f"). See pdf for contexts of some frequent patterns in KWIC.
I guess the Part 5 cipher is something like Cardinal of Carpi's cipher with Granvelle (1548-1549). If so, there will be a difficulty in telling if a two-figure combination has a value of its own or is a part of a three-digit symbol (e.g., "90"="s", "901"="g"). See pdf for contexts of a frequent pattern and "^".
At present, I feel the ciphers are not polyphonic. But a polyphonic cipher like that of the bishop of Nazareth (1585) cannot be totally excluded.

Any ideas?

Beware of Leading Zeros when Using Microsoft Excel

I described how to do frequency count with Microsoft Excel in "Frequency Count (with Microsoft Excel)". Now, I found the COUNTIF function of Microsoft Excel ignores leading zeros, even if the cell category is set to "Text". So, if "12" and "012" needs to be distinguished, some measures have to be taken to force Excel to interpret these as text instead of numbers. I added a note on this matter.

An Early Vatican Cipher from 1520

A private email from Morocco made me aware of a letter partly in cipher to Cardinal Mathieu Schiner from one of his emissaries. Although it is not known whether Schiner used the same or similar cipher with Rome, the cipher is similar to later Vatican ciphers in being written as a stream of figures without break. This is the earliest specimen of such figure ciphers known to me.
See "An Early Vatican Cipher (1520)" for details.

Dian ma Xin bian (電碼新編) as early as 1912?

I acquired a copy of Dian ma Xin bian (電碼新編), a Chinese telegraph codebook, and added its images at
電碼――中国の文字コード (in Japanese) and
Chinese Telegraph Code (CTC),or A Brief History of Chinese Character Code (CCC) (abridged English version of the above).

The seller's website dated this as "1912", but, as expected, the book had nothing to support this dating. I think this copy was from the late 1930s.

Japanese Cryptographic Postcard (before WWII)

I acquired a curious unused Japanese postcard (probably before WWII) depicting a cipher wheel and described it in
"日本の電信暗号" and
"Japanese Telegraph Codes".
It's titled Ango Onshin(暗号音信).
(I know this has nothing to do with telegraphy, but there is no other article for this item to fit in.)

Ciphers of Henry III of France

I uploaded a new article "French ciphers during the Reign of Henry III of France."
It includes more than a dozen ciphers of his reign that I reconstructed from materials in the French archives. The reconstruction was done some years ago, but it took time in organizing them into a preesntable format.
There remain many undeciphered letters, many of which can now be deciphered with the help of the reconstructed keys by those versed in the language and background.
There are also some ciphers still unidentified.

Kurabo's Telegraph Code from 1890

I found an early telegraph code (1890) of Kurabo (倉敷紡績) on the web and added a reference to it in
日本の電信暗号 (in Japanese).

Mitsubishi's Codebook (1929)

I got a copy of Mitsubishi's telegraph codebook (1929), titled Wabun-Denshin-Ango (Telegraph Code for Japanese Text). I placed a search for a telegraph code on a second-hand book network without purpose and had the luck to hit on this item.
It conforms to the common codebooks at the time, with five-letter code groups and three-kana code groups assigned to the entries for plaintext in Japanese. The five-letter code groups are constructed according to four mutilation tables adapted to the new telegraph regulations of 1928.

The codebook is now described in
Japanese Telegraph Codes
Mutilation Table and Error-Correcting Code Before Computer Age
日本の電信暗号
検誤表――コンピューター以前の誤り訂正符号

Regularity in Louis XIV's Diplomatic Ciphers

Some years ago, I pointed out some ciphers from Louis XIV's time can be arranged in a table to reveal alphabetical arrangement of elements. (This characteristic was known to John Wallis, contemporary Engklish codebreaker.) I have now added images to specifically show such regularity for two ciphers from 1689 (in addition to similar images for 1693 and 1702 ciphers) in
"French Ciphers during the Reign of Louis XIV" and
"Specimens of French Cipher (1689) Printed in John Wallis' Opera Mathematica".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Gustave Bergenroth's Papers

I uploaded "Bergenroth's Papers on Spanish Ciphers in PRO 31/11/11
" and added a link to it in "Spanish Ciphers during the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella".

Mary of Guise's Ciphers

I updated "Ciphers during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I".
V. Nachef, J. Patarin, and A. Dubois-Nayt, "Mary of Guise's Enciphered Letters" reconstructed two ciphers used by Mary of Guise (mother of Mary, Queen of Scots). I found one of them is the same as the one in SP53/23 in the British National Archives.

The Cipher between Marie-Antoinette and Fersen Shared with Marquis of Bouillé

David Chelli found a hitherto undeciphered letter related to the Flight to Varennes and deciphered it. It showed that the cipher between Marie-Antoinette and Axel von Fersen was also used between Fersen and the Marquis of Bouillé. I mentioned this in "Ciphers of Marie-Antoinette and Axel von Fersen".
Moreover, according to Marie-Amélie Brocard's report of this finding, the key word of the cipher was conveyed by indicating a page number of a book agreed in advance, though I could not find its source. I also mentioned this in the above article.

Louis XIV's Undeciphered Letter to his Ambassador in Rome (1690)

Louis XIV's secret instructions to Charles d'Albert d'Ailly, Duke of Chaulnes (Wikipedia), French ambassador in Rome, dated 10 July 1690. The letter is presented on a French website. While I was preparing the relevant updates to
"French Ciphers during the Reign of Louis XIV" and
"Unsolved Historical Ciphers",
discussion started in Klausis Krypto Kolumne, where it should be continued.