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+--- Thread: [split] Diplomatic ciphers (/thread-2732.html)
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - Mark Knowles - 09-04-2019
Rene: You are right that in my theory we are dealing with something related to a diplomatic cipher, but used completely out of the context of diplomatic ciphers, not for diplomatic purposes at all. I think the cipher was not intended to be used for diplomatic communication with a distant person, but rather for enciphering a manuscript for the purpose of being read only by the author or possibly just a small group of individuals in the same geographical location. In this scenario there would likely be only one cipher key unlike the normal two we see with diplomatic ciphers. This is technology transferred from one context to a very different context. I don't think the Voynich manuscript serves any diplomatic purpose whatsoever.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - -JKP- - 10-04-2019
Mark, are you talking about a verbose cipher (nonhomophonic) or a homophonic verbose cipher?
Each has different statistical properties, so it would help to know which one you are proposing.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - -JKP- - 10-04-2019
Some background...
Almost all medieval ciphers consist of substitution or steganography or both (it's hard to find examples that don't use one or either or both of these methods). Most of them were not very sophisticated. Many of them substitute one-to-one or substitute only the vowels.
Specifics about the Italian Diplomatic Ciphers collected by Tranchedino
The diplomatic ciphers collected by Tranchedino (about 170 are recorded in a print facsimile) are not very sophisticated and they generally use the same game plan (the glyphs change but the general format does not). They relied on a large library of glyph shapes, and many-to-one substitution, but linguistic patterns can still be discerned in many-to-one ciphers. The Friedmans and the WWII Work Group would have no trouble cracking this kind of cipher.
The main characteristics of the Italian diplomatic ciphers are as follows:
- The substitution glyphs are mostly based on Latin letters, abbreviations, or symbols, or slight modifications of these. There are also a number of arithmetic, geometric, and Greek symbols.
- When additional symbols were needed, they often doubled a symbol (which made the cipher appear more verbose) or made slight modifications to a Latin symbol by adding a tickmark or stem.
- A few of the ciphers substituted number symbols rather than letter/abbreviation symbols (the numbers were mixed with textual nulls).
- There are several optional substitutions for each letter of the alphabet (usually 2 or 3 options but occasionally 4). Thus, g, o, or p might stand for "a". Sometimes biglyphs and occasionally triglyphs are substituted for a single letter of the alphabet.
- When additional symbols were needed, they often doubled a symbol (which made the cipher appear more verbose) or made slight modifications to a Latin symbol by adding a tickmark or stem.
- There are usually a handful of nulls (most of the ciphers have between 8 and 24 nulls). The nulls are usually Latin numbers and abbreviation symbols, presumably so that they blend well with the Latin letters. There are also Greek abbreviation symbols, but they didn't use these as frequently as the Latin
- Each cipher includes a table in which common names and words are substituted by one or two symbols. A common word like "Papa" (for pope) was generally substituted by one or two letters, although sometimes a whole word (like "quare") was used. There were usually about 15 to 40 words included in this table.
To sum it up, they are many-to-one substitution ciphers (and occasionally also one to many) with a few nulls and a lookup glossary for common words.
If you want to see an illustration of the format, here is one I posted as an example on a 2016 blog:
![[Image: TranchedinoCode.png]](https://voynichportal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/TranchedinoCode.png)
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The VMS might be a substitution cipher. It might be steganography. It might be both.
If the VMS uses substitution, then it is typical for its time in the broadest sense and the similarity to diplomatic ciphers may only be through the mechanism of substitution, which was how almost every cipher was constructed at the time.
If it is believed that the VMS is a substitution cipher, I think it would be more productive and less confusing to call the VMS a substitution cipher, or a verbose substitution cipher rather than an "atypical diplomatic cipher". Otherwise almost all medieval ciphers could be classified as "atypical diplomatic ciphers" and that isn't very useful since each one has to be solved in its own way and many of them have no diplomatic content.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - Mark Knowles - 10-04-2019
JKP: In the broadest sense of the term I think it s correct to say I am referring to a homophonic verbose cipher, though this is quite general.
Ultimately whichever term one prefers whether atypical diplomatic cipher or not is just semantics, so I don't want to get bogged down in that. The reason I chose the term "atypical diplomatic cipher" was just, because I am inclined to view most and maybe all of the core concepts are shared, with some fairly small differences or additional featured like a kind of verbosity.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - Mark Knowles - 10-04-2019
JkP: Sometimes it is hard to describe here in words what I am talking about exactly as an example can be easier to illustrate what I mean so there is no confusion.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - Mark Knowles - 10-04-2019
JKP: The reasons I associate it closely with diplomatic ciphers is I think we see examples of: homophones, nulls and repertoire; which are core features of diplomatic ciphers. However in some cases these are just represented in a more verbose form and in a situation where the placing of spaces in the text is deliberately misleading.
I should say that this theory is not set in stone in my mind, but is rather my best guess based on observations of the text as well as lines of thinking not directly related to the text itself. The term atypical diplomatic cipher to me could cover a range of ciphers drawing a lot of influence from diplomatic ciphers.
I use the term atypical diplomatic cipher as I believe we are talking about a cipher which is heavily influenced by diplomatic ciphers, but is in someways distinct and different. I personally find the term verbose substitution cipher less helpful, but if it is the term you prefer that is fine.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - Mark Knowles - 10-04-2019
Rene & JKP: I should emphasise again that I believe that careful statistical and other studies of "single word" labelese need to be conducted as I regard this as voynichese in its simplest form. (By "single word" I mean Voynich text containing no spaces in isolation such as we see with many labels.) This will help to expose features of the cipher, I believe, and potentially challenge my ideas or force me to refine them or modify them or reject them.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - -JKP- - 10-04-2019
(10-04-2019, 12:05 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.JKP: The reasons I associate it closely with diplomatic ciphers is I think we see examples of: homophones, nulls and repertoire; which are core features of diplomatic ciphers. However in some cases these are just represented in a more verbose form and in a situation where the placing of spaces in the text is deliberately misleading.
You will have to explain what you mean by "repertoire". I would consider the Tranchedino collection as a whole to be a repertoire since they share a similar function, time, and structure, and have been brought together as a group, but I get the feeling that's not what you mean.
Are you referring to the lookup table of full words (sometimes called a glossary) that accompanies each cipher?
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I am looking forward to seeing your examples of Voynichese homophones, nulls, and "repertoire". I am particularly interested in how you recognized them and how you tell them apart.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - Mark Knowles - 10-04-2019
The similarities to diplomatic ciphers that look very likely to me are:
1) Repeated words being noise i.e. nulls
2) My own observations of what I believe are examples of the same word being spelled in different, but quite similar ways i.e. some kind of homophonic aspects to the cipher
3) Rare characters make most sense to me as corresponding to specific words or things i.e. repertoire
4) My own personal research pointing in a few different ways to a close connection with the kind of diplomatic ciphers that we see used in Northern Italy in the early 15th century.
So what I have been trying to do is work out a way that a diplomatic cipher can be modified or enhanced to show the kind of features that we see in the Voynich. The extent to which it would need to be modified or enhanced I think is most likely a function of the level of creativity if the author. Given the contents of the Voynich the author must have been a highly creative person, so we may see a significant level of modification or enhancement from that of diplomatic ciphers.
JKP: If you prefer to use the term glossary or lookup table of words that is all fine with me, but yes that was what I was referring to.
RE: [split] Diplomatic ciphers - Mark Knowles - 10-04-2019
JKP: I will try to knock up a complete example over the weekend as it will probably involve quite a bit of work.
Note I am not claiming to have the precise cipher and a complete decryption, but rather discussing my ideas of the kind of way I speculate that the Voynich cipher may work.