Distinguishing Characters

[davidjackson]

No I haven't. Have you? One can only go on the known data out there. I don't know of any other complex cipher developed for fun at that time. If you do please let me know about them.

Notae Elegantissimae.  Based on John of Basingstoke's [i]algorisme grec. [/i]Originally used as a counting system for wine and to bamboozle international traders, by the 15th century French Cistercian monks had used it to produce a Concordance of the Bible, treatises on arithmetic, music and an astrolabe, amongst other things; Agrippa also used it in his Occult Philosophy.

Not a "complex cipher" per se, more of an early attempt to avoid cumbersome Roman numerals that continued parallel with the early introduction of Arabic numerals, but a fascinating study of how a simple cipher that actually works can be used, in distinct evolutionary phases, across the centuries.