Re: VMs: An idea

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jeff,

At 00:52 25/01/2004 +0000, Jeff wrote:
> If abbreviation is involved as NIck Pelling believes then we are lost anyway
> and have to think of a more specific attack method. Also in nulls or even
> codebook numbers are involved then the whole method assumes another level of
> complexity altogether.

*sigh* - I'll say it again. There's specific evidence (in the layout of 
some pages) that suggests that the VMs is an encoded copy of an existing 
document: plus there's evidence (in the alphabet itself) that at least part 
of its cipher system involves a verbose cipher (qo, dy, ol, or, etc). So, 
if the effective average length of letter-representations is longer, but 
the lines are probably the same length, there's good reason to suspect 
abbreviation (truncation or contraction).

Mark Perakh's analysis of the differences between the A and B languages 
also suggests that abbreviation is likely to be an important factor in the 
VMs (though for quite different reasons).

However, we also have a fairly good (though I'll admit it could be 
improved) idea of what abbreviated Italian text looked like circa 1450, so 
we're far from "lost".

Also: if anyone can definitively prove that numbers of any sort (whether 
codebook indices or otherwise, whether Teague numbers, Tiltman Roman 
numerals, etc) are involved, then I'd say we're definitely "found". But AFA 
I'm concerned, that's not ~quite~ true just yet. :-o

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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