ayala1516/reading.txt). Only then did the endorsement lead to the 1875 edition, which prints the Simancas decipherment of 1849: it settles the seven words, corrects about half a dozen more, and otherwise agrees. Outcome: known key applied; the letter had been deciphered in 1849 and printed in 1875, which was found after this decipherment.01 The document and the key
AGS 0001 (DECODE image 1) is Ayala’s clear opening page. The cipher runs over AGS 0002–0006, which DECODE shows in the order 8, 2, 3, 6, 4. AGS 0008 is the address leaf, endorsed 1516 and Cardenal de España.
The cipher is a simple substitution of invented signs for Spanish letters. It has a few variants (a written 9 or 6, o with or without a stroke above), a dotted sign for que and a dotted H for Xebres (Chièvres). Words are separated by small spaces or dots. The key is Tomokiyo’s, transcribed in ayala1516/KEY.md. Three signs are not in it: an arch-shaped sign (perhaps cl), a tall I (an s variant) and Φ (= m on AGS 0004).
02 The decipherment
The Spanish as deciphered here, with doubtful words marked [?]. The full line-by-line decipherment is in ayala1516/plain_0002_0003.txt and plain_0004_0006.txt.
Offices (AGS 0002)
cerca de los oficios que estan vacos en estos reynos y los inconvinientes que ay de proverse a personas que los venden a don Xebres … dizen que V. S. los provee todos … por tanto que haga V. S. tan bien alla lo que aconseja, cierto que verian que alla no se proveyese en ninguno, y asi lo escrive Su Alteza. Los oficios que Su Alteza a dado y prometido … al marques de Villena un regimiento de Toledo que era de Baeza, a Rodrigo Niño otro de Plasencia … el regimiento de Cuenca diz que tiene Su Alteza para Vasco de Acuña, hermano de Pedro de Acuña … crea V. S. que quanto esta vaco esta pedido y prometido para alla o hecha la provision.
The King has many servants here who have served him; Cisneros should give them offices, since it is said here that he fills most of them with his own men. The Genoese are referred to him over the Cartagena galleys: provea V. S. alla como vere conviene a servicio del rey; no se altere por carta ni cedula que alla vea, que aca muchas cosas se proveen por ymportunidades.
Castile and Queen Germaine (AGS 0003–0004)
The King was glad of the pacification of the kingdoms and that the Constable and the Infantado stood with Cisneros. Ayala warned His Highness that Queen Germaine trae tratos con franceses, and a marriage with the house of the Duke of Alba is in hand. On AGS 0004: don García de Padilla, the cedula for the Orders, and que obedezcan primero y se castigue, for if disobedience goes unpunished it will spread through the kingdom; the people of Arévalo, and mil males del reyno.
The peace and the voyage (AGS 0005)
la paz se concluyo entre el rey nuestro señor y el rey de Francia, como por los capitulos della vera V. S., que aqui le enbio; manda Su Alteza que luego la haga V. S. pregonar … De la yda hago saber a V. S. que el rey … sabado treynta de agosto, y en el se acordo de partir sin falta … y se partira para Gelanda … todo estara a punto, y dandole Dios [tiempo] enbarcara, y para esto no tiene estorvo ninguno sino el tiempo.
The peace is Noyon (13 August 1516). The secretary Barroso arrived six days earlier; Ayala spoke to the King before him and gave him his credence, and Cisneros’s protests have done much good.
Orders and Toledo (AGS 0006)
pienso que esta llevara lo de las ordenes, y no es posible; yo pido una cedula para que V. S. pueda poner presidentes cuales le pareciere que conviniente … en lo del corregidor de Toledo … V. S. provea de corregidor, que al rey le plazera.
The rest of AGS 0003 and 0004 (second pass)
AGS 0003 goes on to a man at court who writes mil mentiras: …ho credito a sus avisos, y yo no se por que a ese le quiso dar V. S. tanta autoridad, aviendo sido avisado de cuan mal todos estavan con el en lo de las ordenes de Calatrava y Santiago y Alcantara; por eso se enbio a V. S. el poder para que lo remedie. On AGS 0004 the Comendador mayor of Calatrava protested against Cisneros’s power; Malaga nos a puesto en mucha confusion with a commission bearing two hundred signatures; teniamos lo por acabado. The marriage is con el duque d’Alva, and some there write que V. S. dize mal de Xebres.
The end of the letter (AGS 0005–0006)
The King junto consejo on the Saturday; by 15 September he will be at Antwerp. Ayala gave the King his credence y requerile que por negocio ninguno cesase su partida. On AGS 0006: y respondeme a esto que pues el rey va que alla se hara, y si la yda cesare que la daran; he has named for the posts don Alonso Tellez and a don Pedro; he gave Cisneros’s credence a solas, and was told that el y el chanciller son una persona (Chièvres and Chancellor Le Sauvage). The letter closes on the friendship to be made entre V. S. y el que la desea, y con esta amistad se hara mucho servicio a Dios y al rey. There is no signature in cipher.
Third pass
New on the third pass: Malága’s courier came con cinco mil y tantas firmas; Ayala always insisted que obedezcan primero y se castigue su inobedencia, porque si no se castiga sera dar enxenplo de inobediencia a cuantos lugares ay en el reyno. From Cisneros’s own household it is written que v. s. dize mal de Xebres y que se arma contra el, y que ay en casa de v. s. se dize que el rey es inabil, y que yo e escrito mil males del reyno. At Antwerp the King will take leave of the Estates y hara la orden de la Tusion (the Golden Fleece) before Zeeland. The two nominees are don Alonso Tellez y don Pedro su sobrino; the corregidor of Toledo is to be named at once y como sea hecho quitar se a de ynportunidades.
03 In print since 1875
The address leaf carries, upside down, the note Copiado lo descifrado para D. … García. Simancas 14 de Ag[osto] de 1849 and a second Copiado lo descifrado p[ar]a los Sres. …. The copy went into Pascual de Gayangos and Vicente de la Fuente, Cartas de los secretarios del cardenal D. Fr. Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros durante su regencia (Madrid 1875). The edition splits the letter in two. Carta XLIX (pp. 213–219) has the clear opening and the cipher on offices, Málaga and Arévalo, and is cited as Estado 496 fol. 318. Carta LIV (pp. 238–241) runs from the peace to the end, is cited as fol. 22, and is misdated 1517.
The decipherment here was finished before the edition was found. Checked against it:
- The seven open words: sábese; the code sign after gente del is emperador; condestable, infantadgo, Benavente; era engañado; diziendo en quanta perdición están; yo; and the dotted sign is Xebres: Mos de Xebrés oyó la creencia.
- Corrections to the decipherment here: el de Lanuça (deciphered here as nu[n]ca), solo por tocar a v. s., después de oyda, con fe que me dio, con juramento lo comunicásemos.
- Everything else agrees, apart from the editors’ spelling.
04 What the decipherment left open
Before the edition was found, a third pass enlarged every doubtful word four times and settled it against the transcribed signs and the Spanish. Seven stayed open, and the print has since settled all of them (above):
- AGS 0002 l.12 a word rabese (perhaps sabese); l.15 a dotted code sign after gente del, value unknown.
- AGS 0003 l.5 venavente after condestable e ynfantado; l.19 empeñado or engañado.
- AGS 0004 l.13 the sense of diziendo en cuanta; AGS 0005 l.18 the form of yo; AGS 0006 l.17 a dotted person sign (Mos[iur] de …), not in the key.
- Also short gaps on AGS 0004 (the Arévalo sentence) and at the end of three paragraphs. Key corrections to Tomokiyo’s table: Φ = m and the hook = j/x; the tall I and a looped sign are s; X· is que and q inside words; H· is Xebres; a dotted sign is Francia; a curled t variant.
05 Sources
- Archivo General de Simancas, Estado leg. 496 fol. 22, images via DECODE R9954 (login).
- S. Tomokiyo, cryptiana: Spanish ciphers, the Ayala key rebuilt from R10024 (AGS Estado 12/233).
- Documentos inéditos de la época del Cardenal Cisneros (1516–1517), Real Academia de Toledo, no. 36: a different, clear letter of Ayala of the same day (AGS CSR leg. 394).
- P. de Gayangos and V. de la Fuente, Cartas del cardenal … Cisneros dirigidas a don Diego López de Ayala, Madrid 1867: Cisneros’s side of the correspondence.
Notes, key and reading: ayala1516/ in the repository.