22-12-2016, 11:36 PM
Alisha Rankin discusses various reasons for keeping things secret in her book Secrets and Knowledge in Medicine and Science, 1500–1800.
Here is a brief excerpt about something being enciphered that was available elsewhere if a person cared to find it:
"In mid-seventeenth-century England, Sir Peter Temple created a notebook of medical recipes for his daughter Eleanor. Unusually, Temple encrypted his remedy collection... in a simple cipher. The reason for this, he explained to Eleanor, was threefold: firstly, to 'conceale it if it come in to an Enemys hand', secondly 'because Even Friends doe dispise wt they know' and finally 'to keepe ignorant persons from applying ym (too often) to the Patients prejudice'. The knowledge contained in his book, he suggested, was too sensitive to be shared with just anybody..."
It's also noteworthy that an entire book of remedies was enciphered in a simple (very easy-to-break) substitution code in the 15th century even though the same remedies had been broadly copied in other manuscripts.
I think it's perhaps like a small padlock, like those for the zipper on a backpack, the kind that's easy to break off. It might not deter the determined or stop anyone from taking the whole backpack, but it does sometimes slow people down and make them think twice. As one traveler told me, his backpack had a tiny padlock and his buddy's didn't. His buddy's pack was stolen. His theory was that a thief with limited time to grab and run will take the easiest loot.
Here is a brief excerpt about something being enciphered that was available elsewhere if a person cared to find it:
"In mid-seventeenth-century England, Sir Peter Temple created a notebook of medical recipes for his daughter Eleanor. Unusually, Temple encrypted his remedy collection... in a simple cipher. The reason for this, he explained to Eleanor, was threefold: firstly, to 'conceale it if it come in to an Enemys hand', secondly 'because Even Friends doe dispise wt they know' and finally 'to keepe ignorant persons from applying ym (too often) to the Patients prejudice'. The knowledge contained in his book, he suggested, was too sensitive to be shared with just anybody..."
It's also noteworthy that an entire book of remedies was enciphered in a simple (very easy-to-break) substitution code in the 15th century even though the same remedies had been broadly copied in other manuscripts.
I think it's perhaps like a small padlock, like those for the zipper on a backpack, the kind that's easy to break off. It might not deter the determined or stop anyone from taking the whole backpack, but it does sometimes slow people down and make them think twice. As one traveler told me, his backpack had a tiny padlock and his buddy's didn't. His buddy's pack was stolen. His theory was that a thief with limited time to grab and run will take the easiest loot.