RE: Porta's de furtivus literum?

["ddhopper" <ddhopper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

That's rich!  (almost too rich for my blood.)  Barring any copy being found
in a library - how much would you charge to digitally impress your copy?
I'm presently typing in the Henry Walden translation of Selenus, and I'm
getting some help on the translation to the Traicte des Chiffres by
Vigenere.  (The automated translator keeps coming up with "gasoline" for the
word "essence".)  A lot of fine tuning is obviously in order.  Porta is the
last major book in the triad, and I'd like to make a translation of a
working copy that can include the images and wheels as they were presented.

I know how low Francis Bacon's ciphers are considered by some, but that's
our main interest, and what I'm doing is trying to provide the time period
background information in a modern language so people have a better footing.
On the wider side, these should be of interest to every field of
cryptography if I can acquire them and get them on my site.  I have 175mb of
space to make clear presentations without compromise to quality.

Our goal is to offer the images on CD along with a searchable translation,
sort of like the Octavo editions available.  Their First Folio is fantastic.
Maybe we can do the same with core textbooks on cryptography.  I've read
many pieces on Porta, but I've never seen the entire book.  It would be a
valuable gift to the next generation to make these books readily available.









-----Original Message-----
From: jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
Jim Gillogly
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 6:38 PM
To: voynich@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Porta's de furtivus literum?


ddhopper wrote:
>
> Thanks to Clay Holden for his information on the Selenus book.  Can anyone
> tell me where I can buy a copy of Porta's de furtivus literum?

One sold recently on eBay for $1500.  My copy (actually the 1603 reissue,
De Occultis Literarum, but the same words) is at least as not for sale as
Jacques' "Enochian".  It's a lovely book, with little cipher wheels stuck
to the appropriate pages with little dots of glue in the centers.

I'd recommend keeping an eye on www.bibliofind.com -- currently none for
sale,
though.
--
	Jim Gillogly
	18 Rethe S.R. 2001, 00:31
	12.19.8.0.14, 1 Ix 17 Kayab, Fifth Lord of Night