The Voynich Ninja

Francesco I Barbavara's cipher key in the Archivio di Stato di Mantova

His 6 nephews, the brothers->

Marcolino Barbavara's enciphered letters in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in the Library of Paris

Francesco II Barbavara intercepted letter referring to ciphers that he sent in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze

Bishop Giovanni Barbavara's cipher key in the Archivio Diocesano di Tortona

Abbot Antonio Barbavara who I associated with the authorship of the Voynich manuscript on the basis of a cartographic theory long before I knew of any connection of his family to cryptography

Nicolino Barbavara, Mayor of Vercelli(No known surviving ciphers)

Pietro Barbavara, Apostolic Protonotary(No known surviving ciphers)

Son of Marcolino->

Scipione Barbavara's cipher key in the Tranchedino Cipher Ledger in the Austrian Library in Vienna

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I am most focused now in locating ciphers written by Francesco II Barbavara.

Unfortunately, I haven't yet seen any surviving document in cipher or not in cipher written by Abbot Antonio. Although, I know a certain amount about him from various sources including his great interest in and collection of varieties of plants as the plaque in the Abbey where he was Abbot states.

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Surviving evidence shows that the chancellery of Milan was responsible for producing the most advanced and innovative ciphers in the world at the time from which the Voynich manuscript was dated. See, in particular, the 1424 intercepted Milanese enciphered letters in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze.

And the Barbavara family were at the centre of Milanese cryptography. Francesco I Barbavara is credited with having created the first modern foreign office under Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Francesco II Barbavara was Ducal Secretary and Head of the chancellery of Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti. Marcolino Barbavara was a prominent diplomat in the government of Filippo Maria Visconti.

Why I am particularly interested in locating ciphers used by Francesco II Barbavara?

He was Ducal Secretary and ran the Visconti chancellery from 1425 to 1433. I am particularly interested in seeing Milanese ciphers from this period.

Where do I hope that I might find an example of these ciphers?

It is hard to know. Maybe in the Vatican Apostolic Archives as there were Milanese enciphered letters intercepted by the Papacy in 1431. Maybe in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze there may be more examples of early 15th-century Milanese intercepted ciphers. Maybe in the Biblioteca Bonetta in Pavia where there are many early 15th century Lettere Ducali. Maybe somewhere else? Como or Lucca or ....

How do I expect to find out more about Abbot Antonio Barbavara?

The main source that I have about him is the guide book about the Abbazia di Santi Nazzaro e Celso. However the authors did not provide sources for much of the information about him in the book. I have been in contact with the authors and they don’t remember which sources that they used. One of the sources is a earlier book written by Aina which I have a copy of. I have focused my research at the moment on collecting more early 15th century ciphers rather than tracking down information on the Abbot which I suspect would require considerable time on the ground in Piedmont and Lombardy as the Abbey had no archive of its own, so one would have to look in the archives of Borgomanero, Novara, Vercelli, Alessandria, Milan, Vatican and who knows which other archives.

This is the main text about the Abbey which includes quite a bit of biographical information about Abbot Antonio Barbavara who was the most important Abbot in the abbey's history. (Unfortunately, with few footnotes indicating the sources for the information.)

This is an earlier book which was used as a source for the later book (above).

Neither of these books is available digitally. And whilst I do have a digital copy of the later book I have been asked by one of the authors not to share it.