IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT (well, sort of)

[Jorge_Stolfi]

which makes it possible for people to dispute the original reading, especially if it's not very specific

That is not a problem.

Consider the anagram that Galileo sent to Kepler about the phases of Venus:

• Haec immatura a me iam frustra leguntur o.y.
  
• ("These are now too young to be read by me in vain").
  

Kepler managed to find a sort-of meaningful solution:

• Macula rufa in Jove est gyratur mathem.
  
• ("There is a red spot in Jupiter which rotates mathem[atically]")
  

But when Galileo finally published his discovery, he revealed the solution to be

• Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater amorum
  
• ("The mother of love [Venus] emulates the shapes of Cynthia [the Moon]")
  

There would have been no point in disputing that solution.  Even if there had been other possible solutions, that one would have been enough for Galileo to prove that had already made that discovery by the time he wrote the letter to Kepler.

(Bizarrely, it seems that Kepler's found his incorrect solution well before the official discovery of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter...)

All the best, --stolfi