The Secret Teachings of All Ages · 199 of 236

A Famous Cryptic Title Page

From Selenus' Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiæ.

One year after the publication of the first Great "Shakespearian" Folio, a remarkable volume on cryptogram, and ciphers was published. The title page of the work is reproduced above. The year of its publication (1624) was during the Rosicrucian controversy. The translation of the title page is as follows:

"The Cryptomenysis and Cryptography of Gustavus Selenus in nine books, to which is added a clear explanation of the System of Steganography of John Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim and Herbipolis, a man of admirable genius. Interspersed with worthy inventions of the Author and others, 1624." The author of this volume was believed to be Augustus, Duke of Brunswick. The symbols and emblems ornamenting the title page, however, are conclusive evidence that the fine hand of the Rosicrucians was behind its publication. At the bottom of the picture is a nobleman (Bacon?) placing his hat on another man's head. In the oval at the top of the plate, it is possible that the lights are beacons, or a play upon the name Bacon. In the two side panels are striking and subtle "Shakespearian" allusions. On the left is a nobleman (possibly Bacon) handing a paper to another man of mean appearance who carries in his hand a spear. At the right, the man who previously carried the spear is shown in the costume of an actor, wearing spurs and blowing a horn. The allusion to the actor blowing his horn and the figure carrying the spear suggest much, especially as spear is the last syllable of the name "Shakespeare."

who translated the cipher manuscript of the friar, declared: "There are drawings which so accurately portray the actual appearance of certain objects that it is difficult to resist the inference that Bacon had seen them with the microscope. * * * These are spermatozoa, the body cells and the seminiferous tubes, the ova, with their nuclei distinctly indicated. There are nine large drawings, of which one at least bears considerable resemblance to a certain stage of development of a fertilized cell." (See Review of Reviews, July, 1921.) Had Roger Bacon failed to conceal this discovery under a complicated cipher, he would have been persecuted as a heretic and would probably have met the fate of other early liberal thinkers. In spite of the rapid progress made by science in the last two hundred and fifty years, it still remains ignorant concerning many of the original discoveries made by mediæval investigators. The only record of these important findings is that contained in the cryptograms of the volumes which they published. While many authors have written on the subject of cryptography, the books most valuable to students of philosophy and religion are: Polygraphia and Steganographia, by Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim; Mercury, or The Secret and Swift Messenger, by John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester; Œdipus Ægyptiacus and other works by Athanasius Kircher, Society of Jesus; and Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiæ, by Gustavus Selenus.

To illustrate the basic differences in their construction and use, the various forms of ciphers are here grouped under seven general headings:

1. The literal cipher. The most famous of all literal cryptograms is the famous biliteral cipher described by Sir Francis Bacon in his De Augmentis Scientiarum. Lord Bacon originated the system while still a young man residing in Paris. The biliteral cipher requires the use of two styles of type, one an ordinary face and the other specially cut. The differences between the two fonts are in many case so minute that it requires a powerful magnifying glass to detect them. Originally, the cipher messages were concealed only in the italicized words, sentences, or paragraphs, because the italic letters, being more ornate than the Roman letters, offered greater opportunity for concealing the slight but necessary variations. Sometimes the letters vary a trifle in size; at other times in thickness or in their ornamental flourishes. Later, Lord Bacon is believed to have had two Roman alphabets specially prepared in which the differences were so trivial that it is almost impossible for experts to distinguish them.

A careful inspection of the first four "Shakespeare" folios discloses the use throughout the volumes of several styles of type differing in minute but distinguishable details. It is possible that all the "Shakespeare" folios contain ciphers running through the text. These ciphers may have been added to the original plays, which are much longer in the folios than in the original quartos, full scenes having been added in some instances.

The biliteral cipher was not confined to the writings of Bacon and "Shakespeare," however, but appears in many books published during Lord Bacon's lifetime and for nearly a century after his b death. In referring to the biliteral cipher, Lord Bacon terms it omnia per omnia. The cipher may run through an entire book and be placed therein at the time of printing without the knowledge of the original author, for it does not necessitate the changing of either words or punctuation. It is possible that this cipher was inserted for political purposes into many documents and volumes published during the seventeenth century. It is well known that ciphers were used for the same reason as early as the Council of Nicæa.

The Baconian biliteral cipher is difficult to use today, owing to the present exact standardization of type and the fact that so few books are now hand set. Accompanying this chapter are facsimiles of Lord Bacon's biliteral alphabet as it appeared in the 1640 English translation of De Augmentis Scientiarum. There are four alphabets, two for the capital and two for the small letters. Consider carefully the differences between these four and note that each alphabet has the power of either the letter a or the letter b, and that when reading a word its letters are divisible into one of two groups: those which correspond to the letter a and those which correspond to the letter b. In order to employ the biliteral cipher, a document must contain five times as many letters as there are in the cipher message to be concealed, for it requires five letters to conceal one. The biliteral cipher somewhat resembles a telegraph code in which letters are changed into dots and dashes; according to the biliteral system, however, the dots and dashes are represented respectively by a's and b's. The word biliteral is derived from the fact that all letters of the alphabet may be reduced to either a or b. An example of biliteral writing is shown in one of the accompanying diagrams. In order to demonstrate the working of this cipher, the message concealed within the words "Wisdom and understanding are more to be desired than riches" will now be deciphered.

The first step is to discover [he letters of each alphabet and replace them by their equivalent a or b in accordance with the key given by Lord Bacon in his biliteral alphabet (q.v.). In the word wisdom, the W is from the b alphabet; therefore it is replaced by a b. The i is from the a alphabet; therefore an a is put in its place. The s is also from the a alphabet, but the d belongs to the b alphabet. The o and the m both belong to the a alphabet is replaced by a. By this process the word WISDOM become baabaa. Treating the remaining words of the sentence in a similar manner, AND becomes aba; UNDERSTANDING, aaabaaaaaabab; ARE, aba; MORE, abbb; TO, ab; BE, ab; DESIRED, abaabaa; THAN, aaba; RICHES, aaaaaa.

The next step is to run all the letters together; thus: baabaaabaaaabaaaaaabababaabbbabababaabaaaabaaaaaaa. All the combinations used in the Baconian biliteral cipher consist of groups containing five letters each. Therefore the solid line of letters must be broken into groups of five in the following manner: baaba aabaa aabaa aaaab ababa abbba babab aabaa aabaa aaaaa. Each of these groups of five letters now represents one letter of the cipher, and the actual letter can now be determined by comparing the groups with the alphabetical table, The Key to the Biliteral Cipher, from De Augmentis Scientiarum (q.v.): baaba = T, aabaa = E, aabaa = E; aaaab = B; ababa = L; abbba = P; babab = X; aabaa = E, aabaa = E; aaaaa = A; but the last five letters of the word riches being set off by a period from the initial r, the last five a's do not count in the cipher. The letters thus extracted are now brought together in order, resulting in TEEBLPXEE.

At this point the inquirer might reasonably expect the letters to make intelligible words; but he will very likely be disappointed, for, as in the case above, the letters thus extracted are themselves a cryptogram, doubly involved to discourage those who might have a casual acquaintance with the biliteral system. The next step is to apply the nine letters to what is commonly called a wheel (or disc) cipher (q.v.), which consists of two alphabets, one revolving around the other in such a manner that numerous transpositions of letters are possible. In the accompanying cut the A of the inner alphabet

In the above sentence note carefully the formation of the letters. Compare each letter with the two types of letters in the biliteral alphabet table reproduced from Lord Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum. A comparison of the "d" in "wisdom" with the "d" in "and" discloses a large loop at the top of the first, while the second shows practically no loop at all. Contrast the "i" in "wisdom" with the "i" in "understanding." In the former, the lines are curved and in the latter angular. A similar analysis of the two "r's" in "desired" reveals obvious differences. The "o" in "more" differs only from the "o" in "wisdom" in that it a tiny line continues from the top over towards the "r." The "a" in "than" is thinner and more angular than the "a" in "are," while the "r" in "riches" differs from that in "desired" in that the final upright stroke terminates in a ball instead of a sharp point. These minor differences disclose the presence of the two alphabets employed in writing the sentence.

From Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum.

After the document to be deciphered has been reduced to its "a" and "b" equivalents, it is then broken up into five-letter groups and the message read with the aid of the above table.

The above diagram shows a wheel cipher. The smaller, or inner, alphabet moves around so that any one of its letters may be brought opposite any me of he letters on the larger, or outer, alphabet. In some, cases the inner alphabet is written backwards, but in the present example, both alphabets read the same way.