Independently Enciphered Duplicates

Important dispatches were often sent in duplicates to ensure the delivery of a message. When the message is in cipher, it would be easy to make a copy of an enciphered dispatch. But there are cases in which duplicates are independently enciphered. I added such examples in "Finding the Keys to Philip II's Cipher Letters to Juan de Vargas Mexia".

Practice in Use of Ciphers in the Time of Catherine de Medici

I added a section "References to Cipher in the Correspondence of Catherine de Medici" in my article about French ciphers during the reigns of Charles IX and Henry III. It consists of excerpts of Catherine de Medici's letters mentioning a cipher. They are about instructions to use a cipher, delivery of a cipher, handling a cipher personally, forwarding of letters deciphered or to be deciphered, etc. They may be nothing new, but may allow a glimpse of practice in use of ciphers.

Trevanion's Cipher Still being Sought

Sir John Trevanion was a prisoner at the Colchester Castle during the English Civil War, but managed to escape thanks to a letter which hided a message "PANEL AT EAST END OF CHAPEL SLIDES", which showed him an escape route.
Although this episode is famous as a spectacular feat of steganography, nobody seems to know a primary source of this episode, as I pointed out in 2012 in "Quest for 'Trevanion's Cipher'".
I made some additions to the page (references from 1878 and 1925 and some peripheral information).

Zodiac Killer's Cipher Z340 Broken after 51 Years

Earlier this month (December 2020), Zodiac Killer's Cipher known as Z340 was solved by David Oranchak, Sam Blake, and Jarl Van Eycke. Although I have not paid much attention to this cipher, the puzzle is so well-known that I felt obliged to cover it in a new article in Japanese. (In English, I believe there will be plenty of articles out there.) I also added an entry for this in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers.", which also covers recently solved ciphers. 

 

Ciphers in Catherine de Medici's Correspondence

Some weeks ago, I added ciphers used in the correspondence of Catherine de Medici. (When I said it was the first time I came across ciphers used in her correspondence, I did not remember I already described in the same article a cipher used in a letter from Foix to Catherine de Medici in the reign of Henry III.) Now, I added more ciphers used in letters of the Queen Mother during the reign of Charles IX. As for as the specimens I encountered this time, the Queen Mother used the same cipher as Charles IX. (Not that they did the ciphering themselves. The letters are undersigned by a secretary of state.)
I also made one addition (Tournon?) in "French Ciphers during the Reign of Henry II of France" and another [Hurault?] in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers".

Letters Deciphered by John Wallis Sold at Auction for £29,000

It is well-known that a collectioin of fifty-two letters deciphered by John Wallis was deposited at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Wallis actually made multiple copies of the volume, and on 7 October 2020, one (possibly Wallis's own) was sold at an auction for £29,000. It even includes a fifty-third letter not included in the copy at the Bodleian Library. I added a reference to this in "John Wallis and Cryptanalysis", and also made a few additions from Philip Beeley's paper (2016) referenced by the auction site.
The auction site has some images.
One is Charles I's letter to his son in February 1647, which I already covered in "King Charles I's Ciphers".
Another is a letter from French agent Graymond to Cardinal Mazarin. The cipher used seems to be the same as Graymond's cipher I recently reconstructed from another source and presented in "Ciphers Early in the Reign of Louis XIV".
Another is a letter from the Earl of Lauderdale to the Countess of Carlisle. I now added this in "King Charles II's Ciphers during Exile".
According to the auction site, nearly half of the collection are "from royalist agents in Breda to Dutch and English merchants and other contacts in London: dating from 1650, these relate to the negotiations by which the exiled Charles II was offered passage to Scotland and a means of recovering the throne in England, in return for accepting the authority of the Scottish kirk and parliament." These may include a key between Charles II and the Duke of Hamilton used in some undeciphered letters. I noted this possibility in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers".

Ciphers of Charles IX and Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici

I added a section "Ciphers of Charles IX and Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici" in "French ciphers during the Reigns of Charles IX and Henry III", now renamed from "French ciphers during the Reign of Henry III of France". (I thought separate treatment of the reigns of these brother kings was not necessary.)
As far as I remember, this is the first time I came across ciphers used in the correspondence of Catherine de Medici. The same ciphers were used in letters to the King and Queen Mother as far as these specimens are concerned.
I have been wondering whether Catherine de Medici brought something new to the French cryptography, but these specimens show no such evidence.

Earliest Known French Ciphers

The earliest known specimen of French ciphertext is from January 1526 (or possibly September 1525). This is a few months earlier than the earliest mentioned in a scholarly paper (2018). This and other French ciphers during the reign of Francis I are described in the new article "French Ciphers during the Reign of Francis I".
It includes some undeciphered ciphers, which are now mentioned in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers".

Two Ciphers Broken by George Lasry

Two of unsolved ciphers presented in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers" have been solved by George Lasry.
One is a ciphertext (Senecey to Archbishop of Lyon) left undeciphered by François Viète (see "Ciphers Broken by François Viète").
The other is an Italian letter in the French archives (see "Undeciphered Letters in BnF fr.4715").
Senecey's cipher employs as many as 79 symbols in a relatively short ciphertext, and was very hard to break even with his sophisticated computer algorithms, which appear to have solved the Italian letter in an instant. I look forward to a paper detailing his method.

Regent Marie de Medici's Cipher

I found undeciphered passages in Marie de Medici's letters (1610) in BnF fr.3789 and included it in "French Ciphers during the Reign of Louis XIII" and "Unsolved Historical Ciphers".
The same source also included Villeroy's letter in cipher. The latter cipher turned out to be the same as one I previously reconstructed from BnF fr.15578 presented in "French Ciphers during the Reign of Henry IV of France".

Cipher between Emperor Charles V and Juan Perez (1527)

I added an unsolved cipher in a letter from Juan Perez, ambassador in Rome, to Charles V and another from Charles V to an unnamed recipient in "Ciphers during the Reign of Emperor Charles V" and added references to these in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers".

Venetian Ciphers with Superscripts

I uploaded a new article "Venetian Ciphers with Superscripts" about 16th-century Venetian ciphers. I added a reference to an unsolved cipher (1528) in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers".

Deciphered Letter to Emperor Charles V

In 2018, I solved a cipher in a letter (1529) to Emperor Charles V from Suarez de Figueroa, Spanish ambassador in Genoa and reported it in "Codebreaking of a Spanish Cipher with Vowel Indicators". Since I don't know Spanish, the deciphered text was no more than preliminary. Now, thanks to Demetrio Martín Vilela from Argentina, I made many corrections to my preliminary deciphering. I believe now it is almost a decent text in Spanish (though some parts are puzzling even for the native Speaker of modern Spanish). Martín even provided a quick English translation.

Another Code from the Age of Louis XIV

I added another code as item (11) in "French Ciphers during the Reign of Louis XIV".
Unlike other ciphers at the time, it employs numbers up to 100 (not 99) as well as other letter-letter or figure-letter combinations such as "aa" (Avantage), "2a" (bla), "bc" (la), "maniere" (bl).

French Ciphers in Henry II's Time

I added Duke Marcantonio of Paliano's cipher in "French Ciphers during the Reign of Henry II of France".
I also found an actual letter (1556) in the cipher no.15 presented in "Duke of Guise's Ciphers (1556) in BnF fr.20974" and mentioned it accordingly.

A Cipher of Henry of Navarre before Accession to the French Throne (1587)

I uploaded a new article "A Cipher of Henry of Navarre before Accession to the French Throne (1587)", which presents a cipher used in a letter of Henry of Navarre to Buzenval. This is the only cipher I know of Henry IV before his accession to the French throne. Interestingly, it is a figure cipher, consisting of two- or three-digit figures. In France, such a figure cipher was not yet common at the time, though there were other sporadic examples as I wrote in the last post.

French Figure Ciphers in the 1580s

I added a figure cipher (1586) in "French ciphers during the Reign of Henry III of France" (called "Anonymous Figure Cipher (1586)"). It is similar to a cipher (1579-1584) of Paul de Foix, ambassador in Rome in use of randomly arranged two-digit figures. Ciphers mainly consisting of Arabic figures were not common in France at the time, though more examples can be found in the Nevers Collection.

More Ciphers from Louis XIII's Time

I made several additions to "French Ciphers during the Reign of Louis XIII", of which one undeciphered item (Coquet's) has also been included in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers".
Apart from specific ciphers, an observation by Desenclos (2017) that the cipher (1612) of Sainte-Catherine, resident in the Palatinate, was based on a cipher (1589) for Guillaume Ancel, resident to the Emperor, was interesting for me.

An Unsolved Cipher to Cardinal Mazarin? (1649)

I added an unsolved letter from Henri Brasset, a French resident in The Hague, to "Vostre Eminence" (Mazarin?), in "Unsolved Historical Ciphers". The figures with diacritics probably represent syllables alphabetically arranged and some words and names, as with other ciphers at the time (see here).
There are many interesting patterns, but my attempt has not been successful.
For example, there are many instances of "S 7:" (in my transcription). I guessed this might be "qu e". If so, "S 7: 34 S 7:" is "quelque". "n+", which appears some characters after "mesmes" in clear, might be "s". The pattern AxyA may be "de ma n de" or "re n d re" etc. All these guesses led nowhere.

Another Code from Napoleon III's Time

When googling, I came across a French code from Napoleon III's time, which I added in "Codes from the time of Napoleon III" (now renamed to the plural "Codes").