VMs: Has anyone seen this facsimile ? (Tranchedino)

["PK#01" <pklist01@xxxxxxxxx>]

Unfortunately this is one they *don't* have at the Royal Library.
It has been mentioned often on the list, but I can't find it in the
Netherlands.

And while browsing I found this:
http://www.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de/ghw/geheimschriften/impressum.shtml
Look at the list of literature! I'm going to do some more library digging.

I'm reading the commentary about the "Gratheus" (Cod.Vind. 2372), the
medieval alchemist manuscript in old Dutch. I'll try to keep you informed
about any interesting observations.

---

Francesco Tranchedino
Diplomatische Geheimschriften

The codex dates from about 1475

The Fine Art Facsimile Edition:
Codices Selecti vol. XXII.
Graz 1970. Complete edition for studies of the
338 pp. (169 fol.) with little reduction of the original size 265 x 190
mm. Binding: half leather.

The commentary:
Walter Höflechner, Graz. 46 pp.

ISBN 3-201-00749-8

Codex Vindobonensis 2398
around 1475

EXPERT OPINION:

This cryptographical collection dates back to 1475. The author was a
collaborator of the famous Cicco Simonetta, head of the private
chancellery of the Sforzas in Milano and at the same time one of the
oldest important theoreticians in the field of cryptography.

The manuscript, which came from the library of Philips Edward Fugger, is
partly written in Tranchedino´s own hand. It contains 6 intercepted
cyphers and 287 unknown and complete and 4 incomplete "keys" applied in
the said chancellery. They are not always real keys. Indeed the clear
(uncyphered) alphabet, bigrams, trigrams, etc. ... are often represented
by arbitrary signs; there is also a code or a wordlist - consisting mostly
of proper names - with code-transcription. Of course there are a lot of
dummies (symbols without meaning inserted among the real cyphers to
complicate decoding). It is very typical that all vowels have more
cryptosigns than the consonants because of the supposed higher frequency
of vowels in Italian. This edition is important from a historical and
cryptographical point of view.

H. De Schepper, in: Scriptorium XXVI, I, 1972

http://www.adeva.com/englisch/buchseite_e.asp?id=1228&produkt=Faksimiles
&Kz=
http://www.library.yale.edu/Ilardi/pic14.htm


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