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+--- Thread: Historic cipher mapping (/thread-3715.html)
RE: Historic cipher mapping - pfeaster - 09-01-2022
(09-01-2022, 12:59 PM)Mark Knowles wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.What you have written about the Polybius square is definitely interesting.
In Meister's book we can see that by 1424 the Florentine ciphers had advanced some way....
There is a very interesting cipher key, I think, also from 1424 that Gabrielli generated from enciphered letters..... Meister isn't alive to answer why he did not include that key in his book; I suspect as it is a bit unusual and he was not sure what to make of it or who produced it.
My fingers are crossed that you'll find it and that it will be as interesting as you're hoping!
As to the Polybius Square, I know less than I'd like to about how knowledge of it was diffused during and after the Renaissance, including how and when it came to be imagined as a "square" -- that seems like a natural enough way to picture it, but Polybius himself writes about the idea in terms of five different tablets with five divisions on each. Here's a link to an English translation of the relevant passage, for any who are interested:
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That cipher was originally for fire-signaling, too, rather than for written messages. But I suppose that might open up a new line of investigation in itself -- i.e., what *semaphore* systems were in use at the time of the VM, if any? Was anyone trying to send messages by lights rather than by letters? If Bruni had read Polybius, he for one should at least have recognized the possibility.
RE: Historic cipher mapping - Anton - 09-01-2022
RE: Historic cipher mapping - MichelleL11 - 09-01-2022
RE: Historic cipher mapping - pfeaster - 09-01-2022
RE: Historic cipher mapping - R. Sale - 09-01-2022
RE: Historic cipher mapping - MichelleL11 - 10-01-2022
RE: Historic cipher mapping - ReneZ - 10-01-2022
RE: Historic cipher mapping - pfeaster - 10-01-2022
RE: Historic cipher mapping - R. Sale - 10-01-2022
RE: Historic cipher mapping - Mark Knowles - 11-01-2022