Inspect · Cite · Reuse
Sources beside the text.
The manuscripts, historical references and earlier work that guided our research.
Marie de’ Medici to Brèves, 15 September 1610
BnF, Manuscripts department, Français 3789, f. 17r. Local image supplied by Brice, Gallica frame 32.
View on Gallica ↗Marie de’ Medici to Brèves, 10 November 1610
BnF, Manuscripts department, Français 3789, f. 19r. Local image supplied by Brice, Gallica frame 36.
View on Gallica ↗Key used for the comparisons
BnF, Français 3462, frame 112. Satoshi confirms this key image for Henri IV–Brèves. Its exact application to Marie’s letters remains to be checked.
View the key on Gallica ↗The 1610 succession and regency
Château de Versailles, “Louis XIII”. Background on Henri IV’s death, Louis XIII’s accession and Marie de’ Medici’s regency. Consulted 16 October 2026; used for context, not to establish the cipher.
Read the entry ↗Savoy and the Bruzolo agreements
Les États de Savoie (1416–1861), Classiques Garnier, 2019, p. 233 onwards. University of Turin IRIS excerpt.
Read the excerpt ↗Catalogue description of Français 3789
BnF description reproduced by Biblissima: Marie’s letters of 15 September and 10 November 1610 are items 11 and 12. Used to check identification and the collection’s setting.
Read the catalogue ↗Satoshi Tomokiyo — Cryptiana
Satoshi Tomokiyo’s pages on the ciphers of Henri IV and Louis XIII helped identify Marie de’ Medici’s two letters and directed the search towards Brèves’s ciphers and Français 3462. Earlier work on Henri IV’s letter of 5 January 1610 is distinct from this decipherment of Marie’s letters.
Cryptiana — Regent Marie de Medici ↗
Cryptiana — Ciphers of Henry IV ↗Feedback from Satoshi Tomokiyo supplied on 17 October 2026. He confirms the Français 3462 image and the mistyped “3642” shelfmark, and supplies matching values for QUE, RE, SE and TION. This contribution supports six numerical occurrences; it does not validate the whole reading of Marie’s passages.
Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue and comparative transcription
Entry 25 in Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue helped locate the dossier. His transcription of both passages also served as a comparison for our initial reading of the signs. We cite those documentary contributions; his earlier attempt had not yielded the passages’ plaintext.
Read the catalogue ↗George Lasry and Satoshi Tomokiyo — “Savary de Brèves” report and list of unsolved ciphers
George Lasry’s report on the cipher of Henry IV and Marie de’ Medici to Savary de Brèves (1610), received and published by Satoshi Tomokiyo on Cryptiana on 21 October 2026: independent reading of the 10 November passage (sign 4 = Sa Sainteté, an N sign added to the key). Cryptiana’s “Unsolved” list marks Marie de’ Medici’s cipher (1610) as solved.
Read the report ↗ · Cryptiana list ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue and write-up “Marie de’ Medici → Savary de Brèves, 1610”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue now lists entry 25 (BnF Français 3789, ff. 17r and 19r; DECODE R2075/R2076) as read with a key from external sources (20 October 2026); his write-up and contributors page credit the decipherment of both passages, with the Français 3462 key, to our reading.
Read the write-up ↗ · Catalogue ↗Niccolò Ferducci to Ferdinand I, Fiume, 19 July 1532
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, StAbt Türkei I 2-2-19, fols. 60–61 (AT-OeStA/HHStA StAbt Türkei I 2-2-19). The online inventory describes it as a partly enciphered letter from “N.N.”, the sender’s name being in cipher. Images viewable on the AIS; not reproduced here, as they carry no open licence.
See the record and images (AIS) ↗Ferducci’s glossed letters, 2 June and 18 September 1532
HHStA, StAbt Türkei I 2-2-9 (fols. 20–21a) and 2-2-24 (fols. 118–119): contemporary glosses above the cipher groups, the only source of the table applied to 2-2-19. Independent check against the table from the glosses of 1542 (Bourdeau catalogue no. 499).
2-2-9 (AIS) ↗ · 2-2-24 (AIS) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 498 “Ragusa intelligence to Ferdinand I”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue pointed to this file (cipher letters of the Ragusa network, 1530–1532) and to shelfmark 2-2-19. Checked on 27 October 2026: open, no published reading.
Read entry no. 498 ↗Anton von Gévay, Urkunden und Actenstücke (1838–1842)
Edition of Austro-Ottoman documents from 1526 to 1541, searched in full text (Internet Archive): Ferducci’s letter is not printed; the 1531–1532 volume notes that Antonio Rincon brought to Venice, on 20 August 1532, a copy of Süleyman’s letter to Ferdinand of 12 July.
See the volume (Internet Archive) ↗Charles XII to the Rådet and to the envoys Leijoncrona and Palmquist, Bender, 26 April 1710
Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Abt. Stade, Rep. 5a Nr. 670 (old shelfmark Fach 76 Nr. 38), fols. 83–85: two ciphered copies, with no key or decipherment, in the file “Diverse chiffrierte Schreiben von und an Generalgouverneur Baron Nils Gyllenstierna” (1700–1711). NLA digitisation released under the Public Domain Mark 1.0; two crops are reproduced in the record. The key was rebuilt from a troop list in the same file (fols. 73, 74, 82).
Arcinsys record ↗ · Images (Archivportal-D) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 599 “Swedish government of Bremen-Verden”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue pointed to this file (ciphered letters of Charles X Gustav, Charles XII and Governor-General Nils Gyllenstierna, 1654–1711) and to the keys in Nr. 670. Checked on 27 October 2026: open, not attempted.
Read entry no. 599 ↗Copenhagen to Just Høeg, The Hague, 2 January – 5 June 1675 (Conrad Biermann’s copybook)
Rigsarkivet (Copenhagen), Tyske Kancelli, Udenrigske Afdeling, Almindelig del, “Conrad Biermanns kopibog over udgående skrivelser til danske ministre i udlandet”, 1675, images 005, 008, 012–014, 016, 021–022, 027–028, 035, 039–040, 043, 052–055, 079–080, 084–085, 113, 128, 184, 216 (pp. 2, 4v, 9–10v, 13, 18–18v, 23v–25, 31v–32, 36–37, 39v, 47v–50v, 75–75v, 80–80v, 108v–109, 124, 180, 211v–212). Key: TKUA, “Chiffer” 1670–1709, image 55. Images viewable on Arkivalieronline; not reproduced here, for lack of an explicit re-use licence.
Copybook (Arkivalieronline) ↗ · “Chiffer”, image 55 (Arkivalieronline) ↗Copenhagen to Henning Meyercrone, Paris, 16 February – 21 June 1675 (same copybook)
Rigsarkivet, same register, images 061, 067, 083–084, 099, 109, 114, 124–125, 134–137, 146–147, 149–150, 158–159, 169, 181–182, 191, 208–209, 213–215, 222–224, 231–232, 240–241: nineteen letters, same key K55. Images not reproduced.
Copybook (Arkivalieronline) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 465 “Conrad Biermann’s copybook”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue flagged this register, “a large part in cipher”, and the lead of the “Chiffer” volume. Checked on 27 October 2026: “not yet attempted”, no published reading.
Read entry no. 465 ↗Mémoires et correspondance de Duplessis-Mornay, vol. 5 (Paris, Treuttel et Würtz, 1824)
Letters of Du Maurier (CCI, pp. 469–475) and J. de Serviez (CCVI, pp. 486–488) to Duplessis-Mornay, summer 1593: eight cipher passages printed without translation. Digitised copy of the Princeton Theological Seminary Library; a public-domain edition, three pages reproduced in Documents.
See the volume (Internet Archive) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 371 “Undeciphered figures printed in the Mémoires et correspondance de Duplessis-Mornay”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue flagged these printed, unread figures, transcribed them and on 25 October 2026 proposed the hypothesis of two letters per group, which our reading takes up (his automatic attempt had not succeeded). Checked 27 October 2026: entry “open”, no published reading.
Read entry no. 371 ↗Afonso VI to the Count of Vila Flor, Lisbon, 13, 15 (two letters) and 26 May 1663 (ANTT, Luís de Miranda Pereira, liv. 2)
Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo, Luís de Miranda Pereira, liv. 2 (PT/TT/LMP/0002), “Cartas régias dirigidas ao conde de Vila Flor…”, 1660–1663, images 87 (ciphered letter of 13 May 1663, used for the blind test of the key), 53, 54 and 59 then 55, 56 and 57 (long letter of 15 May 1663, two ciphered copies whose third leaves are swapped in the volume), 69 and 71 (15 May 1663, two ciphered copies), 37 and 39 (26 May 1663, two ciphered copies). Images viewable on DigitArq; not reproduced here, as no reuse licence is displayed.
Record and images (DigitArq) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 391 “Royal letters to the conde de Vila Flor”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue flagged this volume of royal letters with cipher letters, and its online images. Checked on 27 October 2026: “open”, no published reading.
Read entry no. 391 ↗Count of Ericeira, Historia de Portugal Restaurado, part II (Lisbon, 1698)
Book VIII, pp. 524–528: surrender of Évora, Vila Flor’s council of war, the Lisbon riot, the march to Ameixial. Consulted in full text (Internet Archive): the letter of 26 May is not printed; Ericeira only mentions “the King’s repeated orders and the urgent pressure of the Count of Castelo Melhor”.
See the volume (Internet Archive) ↗Doctor de Puebla to Miguel Pérez de Almazán, London, 21 April 1506 (AGS, Patronato Real, PTR,LEG,54,78)
Archivo General de Simancas, Patronato Real, Capitulaciones con Inglaterra, PTR,LEG,54,78 (formerly E. Tr. Ing. leg. 5, f. 93), “Carta del Doctor Puebla a Miguel Pérez de Almazán”, ff. 179–180; 4 PARES images. PARES conditions: public-domain document, “libre reproducción”, with attribution to the Ministerio de Cultura and the source; two images reproduced in Documents.
Record and images (PARES) ↗Satoshi Tomokiyo, Cryptiana, “Spanish Ciphers during the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella”
Reconstruction of the “Puebla’s First Cipher” table, which is the key to our reading, applied as it stands; list of the Great Roman Numeral Code (DCCCLXXXVIII = King of England); list of the letters using this cipher, including this one (without a reading).
Read the Cryptiana page ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 617 “Puebla → Almazán, London, in Puebla’s First Cipher”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue listed this letter. Checked on 27 October 2026: “open”, with no published reading.
Read entry no. 617 ↗NARA, RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Ministers to Spain, vol. 25 (microfilm M31, roll 27)
A. H. Everett to H. Clay, Madrid, 25 September 1825 (despatch no. 7), and “Notes of a conversation of Mr Everett with Mr Zea” (duplicate), images 0112–0121; cipher passages: image 0119, pp. 14–15, and pp. 1–6, 17–18 (images 0112–0115, 0120–0121; 1,127 groups, not printed by Manning). Validation: despatch of 8 September 1825, images 0061–0064, decoded at the time (Manning, doc. 1133). Public-domain microfilm; ten crops (images 0112–0115, 0119–0121) reproduced in Documents. Text printed without the cipher: W. R. Manning, Diplomatic Correspondence … Latin-American Nations, vol. III (1925), docs. 1133–1134.
Image 0119 (NARA catalog) ↗ · Manning, vol. III (Internet Archive) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 638, and the table of J. Q. Adams’s code (“Monroe Cipher”)
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue flagged these “six lines in cipher, without decodification”. The code table used is the one Daniel Bourdeau rebuilt from John Quincy Adams’s despatches (1809–1814), applied unchanged. Identification of the code: R. E. Weber, United States Diplomatic Codes and Ciphers, 1775–1938 (1979). Checked on 27 October 2026: entry “open”.
Read entry no. 638 ↗ · Code table (cyphersolver, targets/jqa) ↗Bibliothèque nationale de France, Français 2984 (formerly Béthune 8509)
Letters of Nicolas Raince, Rome, 1526; no. 24, letter to Montmorency of 20 November 1526, pp. 105–107; ciphered part read: p. 105 (last 21 lines) and p. 106. Digitised microfilm, Gallica, views 54–55; two crops reproduced in Documents (source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF). Cipher table: S. Tomokiyo, Cryptiana, “French Ciphers during the Reign of Francis I” (2020).
Français 2984, view 54 (Gallica) ↗ · Cryptiana (Tomokiyo) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 5 “Nicolas Raince (Rome) → Montmorency and Francis I”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue listed these eight letters and re-measured Tomokiyo’s table; his dossier reads the lower part of p. 105 in part (5 October 2026, classed “decoded, not read”) and does not treat p. 106. Checked on 28 October 2026.
Read entry no. 5 ↗ · “raince” dossier ↗NARA, RG 360, Papers of the Continental Congress, item 89, vol. II (microfilm M247)
F. Dana to R. R. Livingston, St Petersburg, 6/17 April 1783, despatch no. 23 (triplicate), pp. 727–730; cipher passage: p. 730. Key: Dana’s table of October 1782, p. 656 (“Original”). NARA digitisation (NAID 502963402), public domain; four crops of pp. 656 and 730 reproduced in Documents. Text printed without the cipher: F. Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, vol. VI (1889), pp. 381–383.
PCC 89 II (NARA catalog) ↗ · Wharton, vol. VI (Internet Archive) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 485 “Francis Dana → Congress”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue flagged this despatch “with eight coded lines left undecoded in Wharton”, the note in the Papers of James Madison and the lead of Dana’s table. Checked on 27 October 2026: entry “open”, “not yet attempted”.
Read entry no. 485 ↗ · Madison to Jefferson, 11 August 1783, note 9 (Founders Online) ↗Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, Archiwum Krzeszowickie Potockich, AKPot 3227
Letters of Ludwik Wąsowicz, stolnik of Łomża, to Aleksander Michał Lubomirski, 1662–1665, pp. 81–268; cipher table (nineteenth-century reconstruction) p. 81. Reproductions in the DECODE database (records R7501–R7511, restricted access); images shared for study by Daniel Bourdeau, not reproduced here. Published in Documents: our transcriptions and readings of R7503, R7505–R7509.
AKPot 3227 (szukajwarchiwach) ↗ · DECODE R7508 ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 439 “Ludwik Wąsowicz → Aleksander Lubomirski”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue pointed to this file, its nine DECODE records and the key record R7501 in the same file. Checked on 27 October 2026: “open”, no published reading.
Read entry no. 439 ↗Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Manuscritos da Livraria no. 1017
“Cartas aos governadores do reino”, vol. II: register of João IV’s letters to the marquis of Nisa, 1642–1645; letter 00153 (21 September 1644), scan m0157. DigitArq images, not reproduced here (no reuse licence stated). Published in Documents: our transcription and reading of the cipher passage.
PT/TT/MSLIV/1017 (DigitArq) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 380 “João IV → marquês de Nisa”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue pointed to this register. On 27 October 2026, the same day as our reading, he published a study of the register that rebuilds its two alphabets and reads 26 of the 31 words of letter 00153; a parallel, independent reading, mentioned in the card with the differences.
Read Daniel Bourdeau’s study ↗Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, HHStA, StAbt Türkei I 7-2-18, fols. 143r–146r
Ciphered Latin copy, by Giovanni Maria Malvezzi, of three letters of Henry II to Suleiman (1547), with two Italian notes by Malvezzi; enclosure “A” of his dispatch of 8 March 1548. Images viewable in the online inventory (AIS), not reproduced here. Published in Documents: our established text, our translation and a transcription sample.
AIS record ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 500 “Constantinople ciphers of Ferdinand I’s resident Malvezzi”
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue pointed to this group of Malvezzi ciphers (1547–1550), including 7-2-18, “nicht dechiffriert”; Daniel Bourdeau had found and read Malvezzi’s alphabet on Ferdinand I’s letter of 23 January 1548. Checked on 27 October 2026: “open”, no published reading.
Read entry no. 500 ↗Ribier, Lettres et mémoires d’Estat, vol. II (Paris, 1666); Charrière, Négociations de la France dans le Levant, vol. II (Paris, 1850)
Ribier prints in French Henry II’s letter to the Grand Signor and the instruction to the sieur d’Huyson (p. 45 ff.), and Charles V’s Latin letter to the Sultan of 4 February 1548; Charrière publishes the Venice and Constantinople correspondence that traces d’Huyson and Captain Bartholomeo. Public-domain editions, used for identification and sense.
Ribier, vol. II (Internet Archive) ↗ · Charrière, vol. II (Internet Archive) ↗NARA, RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Ministers to France, vol. 17 (microfilm M34, roll 17)
W. H. Crawford to J. Monroe, Paris, 15 August 1813 (third letter of the day, entirely in code), images 0027–0029; legation despatch register, image 0005. Validation: despatch no. 4 (private) of 3 September 1813, images 0031–0032, with a contemporary interlinear decipherment. Public-domain microfilm; two crops (images 0027 and 0029) reproduced in Documents.
Image 0027 (NARA catalog) ↗ · American State Papers, Foreign Relations III (Internet Archive) ↗Daniel Bourdeau — catalogue, no. 652, and the table of J. Q. Adams’s code
Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue flagged the long coded passages of Crawford’s despatches (1813–1814) in the Department’s code (“the = 1385”). The table used is the one Daniel Bourdeau rebuilt from John Quincy Adams’s despatches (1809–1814), with a few values added from the interlinear decipherments of the same volume. Checked on 27 October 2026: entry “open”.
Read entry no. 652 ↗ · Code table (cyphersolver, targets/jqa) ↗
Earlier work and this first decipherment
The research dossier follows leads recorded by S. Tomokiyo, Klaus Schmeh and Daniel Bourdeau. It also mentions earlier work by George Lasry, Norbert Biermann and S. Tomokiyo on a letter from Henri IV to Brèves, relevant to identifying the key. This site does not claim their work as its own.
To our knowledge, this site presents a first decipherment of Marie de’ Medici’s two passages. Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue, checked on 16 October 2026, then listed the 10 November letter as “attempted, open”, with its 15 September sibling; since 20 October it lists both as read and credits our decipherment.[10] Cryptiana also lists them as undeciphered in the consulted references. This statement concerns Marie’s letters, distinct from Henri IV’s letter studied by Lasry, Biermann and Tomokiyo. Some characters remain probable but unconfirmed.
Daniel Bourdeau · Catalogue · Cryptiana · Regent Marie de Medici
Ferducci, 1532. For the Fiume letter of 19 July 1532, checked on 27 October 2026: no published reading in Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue (no. 498), on Cryptiana, in Gévay or in a web search. This is a new reading of an unglossed piece; most other pieces in the same file carry a contemporary decipherment.[13]
Charles XII, 1710. For the Bender letter of 26 April 1710, checked on 27 October 2026: no reading or edition found in Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue (no. 599), in Konung Karl XII:s egenhändiga bref (1893), in the Handlingar rörande Skandinaviens historia or by web search. We publish a reading of the Stade cipher copies; the clear copy received by the Council is probably kept in the Riksarkivet, Stockholm, and has not been consulted.[16]
Høeg, 1675. For the eleven dispatches to Just Høeg from 2 January to 9 February 1675, checked on 27 October 2026 (and again the same day for the eight letters of 12 January to 9 February): no published reading in Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue (no. 465), on Cryptiana, in a web search (Høeg, Meyercrone, Biermann 1675), Danske Magazin, Fridericia or Aktstykker. Clear drafts probably survive in the German Chancery series and the received copies in Høeg’s papers; we know of no edition. Checked again on the evening of 27 October 2026 for the seven letters to Høeg of 13 February to 5 June and the nineteen letters to Meyercrone (16 February – 21 June): entry no. 465 “open”; Fridericia’s Danmarks ydre politiske Historie stops in 1660; Vaupell (1880–1882), A. D. Jørgensen (1893–1894) and Fabricius (1910), read in full text, tell the Griffenfeld–Terlon negotiation and the Swedish marriage from other papers, without printing these letters or their cipher. Rigsarkivet images are not reproduced.[no. 465]
Duplessis-Mornay, 1593. For the figures in the letters of Du Maurier and Serviez, checked 27 October 2026: the 1824 editors had no key; no published reading in Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue (no. 371, “open”) or repository, on Cryptiana or by web search. The two-letters-per-group hypothesis is Daniel Bourdeau’s.[no. 371]
Vila Flor, 1663. For Afonso VI’s ciphered letter to the Count of Vila Flor of 26 May 1663, checked on 27 October 2026: no published reading in Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue (no. 391) or by web search; Ericeira (1698, 1751 ed.) does not quote the letter, which he alludes to among the King’s “repeated orders”; the blog Guerra da Restauração publishes Vila Flor’s letter to the King of the same day, not this one. For the letters of 13 and 15 May 1663, re-checked the same day: Ericeira, book VIII, pp. 514–521, neither prints nor paraphrases these orders; the blog Guerra da Restauração (posts on 14–31 May 1663) does not quote them; nothing on the web. For the long letter of 15 May 1663, checked the same day: Ericeira, book VIII, pp. 514–528, neither prints nor paraphrases it (no place of arms at Setúbal, no 44,000 cruzados, no sending to Montemor); the blog and the web do not quote it; no. 391 is still “open”. Álvares da Cunha’s account (1663) has not been checked in full text. ANTT images are not reproduced.[no. 391]
Puebla, 1506. For Doctor de Puebla’s letter to Almazán of 21 April 1506, checked on 27 October 2026: Cryptiana lists it among the “First Cipher” letters, without a reading; the Calendar of State Papers, Spain I (1862) and its Supplement (1868) neither print nor summarise it; Daniel Bourdeau’s catalogue (no. 617) lists it as “open”; nothing on the web. The reading of the cipher passages is new; the key is Satoshi Tomokiyo’s.[617b]
Everett, 1825. For the six cipher lines of the notes of 25 September 1825, checked on 27 October 2026: Manning (1925) prints them “without decodification”; the extract sent to Congress in 1826 (Register of Debates, Executive Proceedings of the Senate, American State Papers, Foreign Relations V, no. 418) gives in clear only their first clause (“I did not think it necessary to enter very fully into the argument with Mr. Zea.”); the Papers of Henry Clay, vol. 4 (1972), summarise the despatch; full-text search (Internet Archive, Google Books) and web search find the rest nowhere; entry no. 638 is “open”. The unpublished part (53 of 74 groups) is therefore published here for the first time, to our knowledge.[no. 638]
Dana, 1783. For the eight cipher lines of Francis Dana’s despatch no. 23 (6/17 April 1783), checked on 27 October 2026: Wharton (1889) prints “(Here follow eight lines of cipher.)”; the note in the Papers of James Madison calls them undeciphered; Cresson, Francis Dana (1930), does not give them; the Adams Papers publish the table, not this passage; full-text search for several phrases of the clear text (Google Books, including M. Giunta, The Emerging Nation, 1996) and web search find nothing; entry no. 485 is “open”. R. E. Weber (1979) could not be consulted. First published decipherment, to our knowledge.[no. 485]
Wąsowicz, 1662–1663. For the six letters of Ludwik Wąsowicz to A. M. Lubomirski (R7503, R7505–R7509), checked on 27 October 2026: catalogue entry no. 439 is “open”; full-text search of the Polish digital libraries (FBC: Polona, the Jagiellonian Library, etc.) finds neither the letters nor their phrases; the thirteen volumes of F. Kluczycki’s Acta historica print none of them; web search finds nothing. The only letter of the file already deciphered, R7502, is deciphered within the file itself (between the lines and on a nineteenth-century sheet) and is not published here. The monographs of A. Kersten and W. Czermak could not be consulted. First published decipherment, to our knowledge.[no. 439]
João IV, 1644. For letter 00153 of the register ANTT MSLIV 1017, checked on 27 October 2026: the register gives no contemporary decipherment of this letter (it does for the other cipher passages); vol. II of Laranjo Coelho’s edition (1940–1942) begins in 1646; vol. I and Gastão de Melo de Matos’s study (Arquivo Histórico de Portugal, IV) could not be consulted. Daniel Bourdeau’s parallel reading was published the same day (26 words of 31).[no. 380]
Crawford, 1813. For W. H. Crawford’s cipher letter to J. Monroe of 15 August 1813, checked on 27 October 2026: the microfilm carries no decipherment of it (whereas most of Crawford’s other cipher despatches in the same volume have an interlinear one); American State Papers, Foreign Relations III (no. 262, 1814) prints only the first letter of the same day, in clear; the editors of the Papers of James Madison summarise the subject of the cipher letters of 15 August and 3 September without giving their text; web search finds none of its sentences; entry no. 652 is “open”. The Papers of James Monroe and the Crawford papers at the Library of Congress were not consulted. The text is therefore published here for the first time, to our knowledge.[no. 652]
Credits and reuse
The editorial model and visual principles follow Wenmi, by Brice Dudout with Claude: paper background, reading typography, history, method and inspectable documents. This implementation has its own files and does not modify Wenmi.
Images from the Austrian State Archives (AIS) are not reproduced: the site links to the online inventory. Original edition text and code: CC BY 4.0. Facsimiles are from BnF / Gallica and retain their separate reuse conditions; the site licence does not replace them. No archive image was generated by AI. The two Simancas images (AGS, PTR,LEG,54,78) are reproduced under the PARES conditions: Ministerio de Cultura (España), Archivo General de Simancas.
Two atmosphere illustrations were generated with imagegen: a writing desk and a courier towards Rome. Their captions identify them; they are not historical evidence. The manuscript-letter logo is a vector drawing made for this site.