Re: W-Hypothesis - maybe the P-hypothesis?

["Dana F. Scott" <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following web sites concerning Giambattista della (John Baptist) Porta
(1535-1615) may be of interest:

http://members.tscnet.com/pages/omard1/jportat3.html
http://www.cinemedia.net/SFCV-RMIT-Annex/rnaughton/PORTA_BIO.html
http://home.att.net/~tleary/cryptolo.htm

Regards,
Dana Scott

Jim Reeds wrote:

> On Oct 22,  0:45, Nick Pelling wrote:
>
> > Subject: Re: W-Hypothesis - maybe the P-hypothesis?
> > Hi Bernd,
> >
> > >I would like to announce the birth of yet another Voynich MS hypothesis:
> > >the W-hypothesis (Voynich-Vigenere = V V = W) :-)
> >
> > According to...
> >          http://raphael.math.uic.edu/~jeremy/crypt/contrib/deepak.html
> > .....when Vigenere moved to work in Rome...
> >
> >          People were talking about a book by a doctor and mathmaticain
> >          named J.B. Porter. His book and contianed the most accurate
> >          ...
> > The reference is to Fletcher Pratt's 1939 book "Secret and Urgent", Blue
> > Ribbon Books, New York. Has anyone read this book, or got any further
> > references on JB Porter?
>
> I have read Pratt's book. JB Porter is certainly J. B. Porta,
> Ioan. Baptista Porta, Giovanni Baptista Porta, della Porta, etc.
> His book, De furtivis literarum notis, was published in 1563 in
> Naples, and again, under the title De occultis literarum notis in
> 1590 and 1603. See Kahn for a discussion of Porta's place in the
> history of cryptography and Galland for a discussion of the various
> (many) editions. I don't know of an English translation, but one
> might think of Wilkin's Mercury of the Secret and Swift Messenger
> (1680 or so, London) as a kind of near-contemporary rephrasing of
> Porta's book.
>
> There was a facsimile reprint edition of the 1593 Montbeliard
> edition privately printed in 1996, handed out as a party favor
> at the 1996 Eurocrypt conference in Zaragoza
>
> --
> Jim Reeds, AT&T Labs - Research
> Shannon Laboratory, Room C229, Building 103
> 180 Park Avenue, Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971, USA
>
> reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, phone: +1 973 360 8414, fax: +1 973 360 8178