Re: Folding keys etc...

[Steve Ekwall <ekwall2@xxxxxxxx>]

jump bottom:
 
 Hi Steve,
 
 OK: here's one more try...
 
 The first job is to reconstruct the 8 areas (translation lists) of the key:-
 
 (a) Make a note of every set of 8 characters following each long gallows 
 character. These normally have a space in the middle (ie, "abcd efgh") 
 corresponding to the blank central area of the 3x3 key - but that's 
 probably not important to the cryptogtaphy.
 
 (b) Build a table of all these sets of eight characters. Then, the columns 
 form the translation lists (against a presently unknown alphabet), one for 
 each of the 4 gallows (and their 4 c--c struck-through versions).
 
-=se=-> YES - EXACTLY <-=se=-

 (c) Where long gallows are missing (from missing folio pages), make 
 educated guesses for their associated table entries based on the characters 
 that follow each normal gallows and haven't yet been seen.
 
 The second job is to decrypt the text using this single key.
 
-=se=-> YES - the characters changing on the KEY though <-=se=-

 (d) Whenever you encounter a normal gallows character, subsequently use the 
 column of the translation table matching it.
 -=se=->YES<-=se=-
 
(e) Translate all other symbols read using this table
-=se=->YES<-=se=- 

 The third job is to use frequency analysis and entropy statistics to guess 
 at the underlying alphabet (and then hopefully guess at the language, and 
 the contents).
 
 How close is this?
 
-=se=-> YES, THAT is pretty much it for the folding key <-=se=-

 Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
 
 PS: There's one other struck-through character which appears later in the 
 manuscript which you don't mention: it looks like "c-'-c", ie the strike 
 through c--c character but with an apostophe above it. Do you recognise 
 that as a 9th gallows character?
 
 PPS: what does "c_c_c = cut, 8am\\ = splice then two (2) back" mean?
 
-=se=->

 Hi Nick :-)

Sorry I didn't get ALL the answers here (ha.haa) but I ~felt~ that c_c
would always be a roll-UP the bottom of the KEY. (or rotate it 180).

The "c_c_c = cut, 8am\\ = splice then (2) back" is verbatum from ES
and I don't have a Clue to what IT means - or even who it might be 
for... I assumed it was RNA/DNA ~splicing~ referencing the plants and
women figures etc.. (I KNOW 14th Century - yea right)... the "8am"
seems to stand out at me in most all the pages I've seen. The "Back 2"
is just that "go back 2" ... two what? I don't know. 
 
Have a good week-end 
-=se=-
steve (just a messenger - sorry) ekwall