Archive Proximity

[hatoncat]

The problem with those letters is the date. We have great riches of examples of Milanese ciphers from the 2nd half of the 15th century. We have lots of enciphered letters in the Archivio di Stato di Milano and we have the Tranchedino Cipher Ledger in Vienna(and the Albertoni Cipher Ledger in Cremona). However, in large part due to the 1447 fire in the Chancellery in Milan we have a poverty of examples of Milanese ciphers from the first half the 15th century. There are a few examples, but you can count them on the fingers of at most 2 hands. I suspect also that ciphers were probably used less often in the Milanese chancellery in the 1st half of the 15th century than in the 2nd half of the 15th century when Francesco Sforza became Duke and Cicco Simonetta his chancellor. The examples we have from the first half of the 15th century are: the 1397 enciphered letter in the Sercambi book, the 1424 enciphered letters in the Florence Archives and a few from 1440 onwards. I am very interested in seeing examples of Milanese ciphers from between 1425 and 1439 especially from the period 1425 to 1433 when Francesco Barbavara was head of the Milan Chancellery given that I associate the Barbavara with the Voynich. The sophistication of the 1424 cipher justifies an interest in Milanese ciphers of this period.

I can look into Barbavera. Just a cursory search and selecting two top results, I found a JStor article and a Wikipedia entry on a possibly different Barbavera from the late 1300s but died before 1415:
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"The most revealing of these materials is the dedication of the Supple-
mentum to Francesco Barbavara (died c. 1445), secretary of Filippo Maria
Visconti (1392-1447), duke of Milan."

It's possible the Wikipedia entry has it incorrect if it's not a different one. There is only a single language, so notes may be limited. 

Edit: This covers the minister of Milan: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.