Archive Proximity

[Mark Knowles]

I live in Italy, more precisely in Padua. I travel a lot around the country, so if you have any specific requests involving an archive near a major city, I can probably help 

Padua could have interesting material in its archives, so there may be material there. I guess it is unlikely that you will be visiting Pavia as it is quite a small city. Also if you visit Rome visiting the Vatican Archives might be a major endeavour. Getting permission to research in the Vatican archives does not appear to be as difficult as some might imagine however it might require quite a bit of time; it is hard for me to say as I have never researched there myself.

When it comes to ciphers surviving from the early 15th century there is a mixed picture where surprisingly more material survives from some of the smaller states.

From Lucca: Cipher Ledger of Paolo Guinigi
From Mantova: Cipher Ledger of Francesco Gonzaga + Some enciphered letters
From Modena: A number of enciphered letters
From Florence: Quite a number of enciphered letters and the collection "Crittografia Fiorentini" of cipher keys generated from enciphered letters by the 19th archivist Abbot Pietro Gabrielli.

From Venice: Very little.
From Milan: Not so much. (But a lot from the later half of the 15th century)
From the Papacy: Unknown as I don't know what Vatican archives may hold. It is worth noting however that the Papacy moved around quite a bit at this time, so there may be Papal ciphers in other archives like Bologna.(In fact I know of at least one in the Bologna archives)

There could be a number of archives worth searching. For example, I know of the Guinigi cipher ledger in Lucca, but there may also be enciphered letters too. Searching around in the Mantova, Modena and especially the Florence Archive may help locate some more enciphered letters.(I know a few researchers looking in the Florence archives for ciphers, so there may not be more to find. However, the Florence archive is on my list of places I would be interested in searching if I had the time as I may find something unexpected.) There is unlikely to be anything of interest in the archives in Southern Italy or Sardinia, although anything is possible if Sforza ciphers can find their way to St.Peterburg. The reason for the interest in ciphers from the Italian city states is that in the early 15th century they were far more advanced than one tends to find in other European states at that time with the possible exception of the Kingdom of Aragon which was heavily involved in Italian politics and for which early 15th century ciphers survive.

Meister's "Die Anfänge der modernen diplomatischen Geheimschrift" gives an overview of what he found in archives in Pisa, Siena and some other cities. However, from my experience it is very possible that he missed some ciphers in his research as I have found quite a few ciphers that he missed in archives.