APPENDIX. 843 



Traiete des Chiffres, ou secretes manieres cTescrire, par Blaise de 

 Vigenere, Bourbonnois. (Paris, 1587.) 



This work is described by the author as what he had saved of his 

 work " Du Secretaire" written in Italy in 1567 and 68. The two 

 first books were stolen at Turin in 1569. The third is the founda- 

 tion of the present work. (v. f. 285. verso.) He says he had revealed 

 nothing of its contents. 



The two authors whom he chiefly mentions are Trithemius and 

 Porta ; that is, modern authors ; for there is a great deal said of the 

 Cabala. The key ciphers of which Porta speaks he ascribes to a 

 certain Belasio, who employed it as early as 1549: Porta's book not 

 being published until 1563, "auquel il a insere ce chiffre sans faire 

 mention dont il le tenoit." Porta's book, he goes on to say, was not 

 en vente until 1568. The invention was ascribed to Belasio by the 

 grand vicar of St. Peter at Rome, who had great skill in deciphering, 

 (f. 35. rect. and 37. verso.) 



At f. 199. Vigenere gives an account of ciphers in which letters 

 are represented by combinations of other letters, which. Porta had 

 already done, but which he varies in a number of ways. 



f. 200. A table where the twenty-three letters of the alphabet, and 

 four other characters are represented by combinations of abc. D 

 (e. gr.) = aaa, S bac^ &c.) 



f. 201. A smaller table where an alphabet of twenty-one letters 

 is similarly represented. 



f. 202. An alphabet of twenty letters represented by binary com- 

 binations of five letters, a=ED, &c. 



f. 202. goes on to what Bacon speaks of, a cipher within a cipher. 

 You write in a common cipher with an alphabet of eighteen letters ; 

 the cipher being such that the five vowels are used as nulls ; then 

 by the last cipher these five vowels are made significant, and give 

 the hidden sense. He seems to speak of this as his own. 



After mentioning a cipher described by Cardan, he goes on, f. 205. 

 to Porta's ciphers by transposition, &c. 



At f. 240. he shows how characters may be multiplied by dif- 

 ferent ways of writing them ; which Porta had not done. 



f. 241. An alphabet and $-, each character written in four ways. 



f. 241. verso, An application of these variations. 



f. 242. He remarks that a great variety of uses may be made of 

 this idea, and gives some. 



f. 244. He goes on " De ce meme retranchement et de la variete de 

 figure, part une autre invention encore d'un chiffre carre a double 

 entente, le plus exquis de tous ceux qui ayenteste decouvcrs jusqu'a 



