Mark Knowles > 27-08-2022, 09:11 PM
(27-08-2022, 07:45 PM)bi3mw Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(27-08-2022, 07:04 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Clearly there are well known examples such as the works of Giovanni Fontana.
Giovanni Fontana was also the first one that came to my mind. I suppose his cipher was more of a "finger exercise" than an attempt to seriously hide anything. This is exactly the difference with diplomatic ciphers. Here, the information should be hidden as well as possible. What is striking about the VMS is the fact that there is not a single reference to a key in plain text ( like Fontana in Cod.icon. 242 ). This would indicate, if it really is a cipher, that the entire document should be seriously protected from access by others (non-initiates?). I know of no other manuscript from this period that would be comparable in this respect.
Mark Knowles > 27-08-2022, 09:20 PM
(27-08-2022, 07:45 PM)bi3mw Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Do you mean this work ?
Übersicht über die nichtdiplomatischen Geheimschriften des Mittelalters by Bernhard Bischoff
bi3mw > 27-08-2022, 11:08 PM
(27-08-2022, 09:20 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Yes. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any other work covering non-diplomatic ciphers from the early 15th century. If you know of any, I would certainly be interested.
Hermes777 > 28-08-2022, 07:02 AM
ReneZ > 28-08-2022, 07:46 AM
Mark Knowles > 28-08-2022, 09:17 AM
(28-08-2022, 07:46 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.- a top cipher developer would know very well that it is a very bad idea to encrypt a very long text with a single method/key
(28-08-2022, 07:46 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.- a brother of a top cipher developer would not necessarily have access to such secrets. (If my brother had access to state secrets, I would most definitely NOT know them).
Aga Tentakulus > 28-08-2022, 09:43 AM
bi3mw > 28-08-2022, 12:36 PM
(28-08-2022, 07:02 AM)Hermes777 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I don't detect anything in the illustrations and diagrams that might require serious concealment, but who knows?Yes, especially in the plant part, the encryption actually seems unnecessary. But if it should be e.g. about plants for abortion, it looks quite different. Dioscorides mentions in his "Materia medica" more than 100 plants with the indication "fruit expulsion" ( source: Deutsche Apothekerzeitung ). In German translations, the applications were often rewritten as "labor-promoting". It is not at all unlikely that the original text also appear in the VMS. Also recipes with hallucinogenic plants were better concealed in the Middle Ages to avoid a conflict with the church.
Mark Knowles > 28-08-2022, 01:05 PM
(28-08-2022, 12:36 PM)bi3mw Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Yes, especially in the plant part, the encryption actually seems unnecessary.
bi3mw > 28-08-2022, 01:38 PM
(28-08-2022, 01:05 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I enjoy speculating about the mindset of the authors, but ultimately it is just speculation.