15thc perception on swallowtail merlons?

[Mark Knowles]

The period between the fourteenth century and the sixteenth seems to have been exceptionally violent in Northern Italy. Many castles were built or expanded over a few decades, only to be destroyed and rebuilt again in recurring cycles. A lot of the small towns and villages were surrounded by walls as well.

In the early 15th century, the period to which the vellum of the Voynich manuscript is dated, saw what are termed the 4 Wars in Lombardy. For most of the late 15th century there was peace with the Pact of Lodi.

The early 15th century saw major advances in the use of cryptography by the Italian States. I suspect that the extent of war and conflict over that period drove the advancement in cryptography.

From a purely archeological perspective, the late 15th century was still a golden age of castle-building, whereas many castles were converted to civilian residences after the mid-16th century, as if something had convinced poeple that the newly found peace was there to stay.

I would say that quite possibly the late 15th was in some ways a golden age of cryptography as the use of ciphers by Italian City States seems to have become more widespread and standardised. However, with the exception of Leon Battista Alberti, whose work was not widely applied, for most of the late 15th century there was very little innovation in cryptography. The period of innovation, experimentation and advancement was the early 15th century, but this may not have been a period of widespread use.(The evidence that survives is very patchy in this respect, so it is hard to be certain how widespread usage was at specific times and in the case of states like the Republic of Venice, where the surviving evidence is very sparse, how cryptography developed.)