I have been examining the calenders of Spanish papers and letters along with others for research for my Tudor books and have hit a snag. A number of letters are ciphered, has anyone deciphered them? If so where? Any suggestions would be appreciated
The ciphers appear in the calendars? Can't recall seeing that before.
Answer to the question: Unless the editor has deciphered, you probably have to DIY. Haven't tried it myself, and I guess it's alot of effort.
I have seen cipher keys in the original state papers, so I'd be surprised if the calendars omit those. Occasionally there's a letter in cipher to someone like Burghley or Walsingham, with the key set out by the spymaster on the back of the paper - like a jumbled alphabet, written letter for letter beneath a standard alphabet. They used number jumbles as well. Sometimes it's a bog standard nickname system, with the names of people and places rendered in pre-arranged words or symbols.
Lots of popular stuff written about tudor cryptography in the past ten years. Just leafed through Hutchinson's book on Walsingham - nothing in the index, although I'm sure he does deal with this topic.
The ciphers appear in the calendars? Can't recall seeing that before.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to the question: Unless the editor has deciphered, you probably have to DIY. Haven't tried it myself, and I guess it's alot of effort.
I have seen cipher keys in the original state papers, so I'd be surprised if the calendars omit those. Occasionally there's a letter in cipher to someone like Burghley or Walsingham, with the key set out by the spymaster on the back of the paper - like a jumbled alphabet, written letter for letter beneath a standard alphabet. They used number jumbles as well. Sometimes it's a bog standard nickname system, with the names of people and places rendered in pre-arranged words or symbols.
Lots of popular stuff written about tudor cryptography in the past ten years. Just leafed through Hutchinson's book on Walsingham - nothing in the index, although I'm sure he does deal with this topic.
You might start here:
http://www.baconscipher.com/Cryptology16.html