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+--- Thread: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? (/thread-5735.html)
This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - Jimmy123 - 14-05-2026
Sorry I'm not very good with historical books and maybe you already know this one but I found this book from "Bonaccorso Ghiberti" in 15th century. It has engineering diagrams, but it's interesting because it is written in cypher text. Here some images from internet:
There are also columns/pillars designs like Mariani and Taccola (from the other thread), that look like containers in Voynich manuscipt.
EDIT: I found full scan of book, here:
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Maybe you can look if there are more similarities with Voynich manuscript?
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - DG97EEB - 14-05-2026
Is it enciphered? Looks like Florentine Mercantesa..
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - MarcoP - 14-05-2026
This page is ciphered (similar mercantesca script as the plaintext)
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - Rafal - 14-05-2026
There are more pages enciphered in this way.
It feels like a simple substitution cipher however.
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - Mark Knowles - 14-05-2026
The internet says that he was born in 1451 and died in 1516. So, it looks like this work was written well into the later half of the 15th century, which makes it less relevant to the Voynich manuscript.
There was quite a fashion in the 15th century particularly in Italy of writing in cipher. Brunelleschi, Da Vinci and others are known to have written in cipher.
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - Jimmy123 - 14-05-2026
Why they write an engineering book in cipher, though? What message must they hide?
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - Mark Knowles - 14-05-2026
(14-05-2026, 01:49 PM)Jimmy123 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Why they write an engineering book in cipher, though? What message must they hide?Knowledge that they wanted to keep secret. They were concerned to keep their intellectual property from being stolen by others. There were no protections like patents.
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - Jimmy123 - 14-05-2026
(14-05-2026, 01:51 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Knowledge that they wanted to keep secret. They were concerned to keep their intellectual property from being stolen by others. There were no protections like patents.
Ok but the images are right there, unencrypted. Everybody can see how to build that trebuchet looking thing just by looking at it. Professional engineers don't need IKEA isntructions for building trebuchet. So there is no point to encrypt the text "Step 1: take a screwdriver, Step 2: take 3 screws of type A". There is simply no point to encrypt these things if you can already see the diagram.
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - MarcoP - 14-05-2026
Vowels were simply replaced by alphabetically adjacent consonants:
A:b E:f I:k O:p U/V:x
Transcription of top paragraph:
lxnb dkqfstf Fxnk bxpgkf flbttrb ksxpgkf
Nf lb Rxpttb chf b f dfnttk xf nflmfzp dxb
gkrflf dpxf chprpno qfstf Fxnk dksxtto fdk
spPRb nf dxb blttrf mknprk dpxf xbnp mf dfskmb mf
nttf lf Fxnk skchf nflb rxottb s A xf 4 rxpttf
dxb dkspPRb f dxb dk spttp dpxf chprpnp lf Fxnk
Substitution:
lvna diqeste Fvni avogie elattra isvogie
Ne la Rvotta che a e dentti ve nelmezo dva
girele dove chorono qeste Fvni disvtto edi
soPRa ne dva alttre minori dove vano me desima me
ntte le Fvni siche nela rvotta s A ve 4 rvotte
dva disoPRa e dva di sotto dove chorono le Fvni
Normalized Italian:
L’una di queste funi avvolge e l’altra svolge.
Ne la ruota che ha i denti, vi è nel mezzo due
Girelle dove corrono queste funi di sotto, e di
Sopra n’è due altre minori dove vanno medesima-
mente le funi. Sicché nella ruota A v’è 4 ruote,
Due di sopra e due di sotto, dove corrono le funi.
Machine translation:
One of these ropes winds up while the other unwinds.
In the wheel that has the teeth, there are in the middle two
rotating pulleys over which these ropes run below, and
above there are two other smaller ones where the ropes like-
wise pass. Thus, in wheel A there are four pulleys,
two above and two below, over which the ropes run.
RE: This encyphered engineering book is interesting, maybe? - nablator - 14-05-2026
Thank you Marco. I suspected it because of all the b/f/k/p/x endings but I wasn't sure.