01 The letter
| Shelfmark | BnF Clairambault 1225 |
|---|---|
| Sender | Paget? |
| Recipient | Votre Excellence; identity unestablished |
| Date | Genoa, 3 April and 28 August 1714 |
| Language | French |
| Report status | 13/13 pages transcribed; 7/7 cipher pages deciphered |
| Ciphertext | 495 elements, 487 identified (98.4%) |
02 The key
113 codes, 20 letter codes, 89 in nomenclature, 4 unidentified
03 The decipherment
f58v
qualitez qu’on peut desirer. Elle achevera sa 22e année le 25 Octobre prochain, estant née le mesme mois en mil 692. Elle est bien faite, blonde, le visage rond, les traits fins et assez reguliers, et la taille belle, quoy que moyenne, beaucoup d’esprit et un air fort modeste.
Translation. Qualities one could wish for. She will complete her twenty-second year on 25 October next, having been born in the same month in 1692. She is well formed and blonde, with a round face, fine and fairly regular features, and a fine figure, though of medium size; much intelligence and a very modest manner.
04 Plaintext and other sources
Where a decipherment or clear copy already existed, as George Lasry gives it:
- Interlinear plaintext
- Interlinear plaintext on ff53r–54r, f57v and ff58r–59r.
05 Our check
This result is George Lasry’s. This project did not re-solve the cipher: it checked one sample against the Gallica image and recorded what it found.
- Batch A. Image checked: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9001034d/f60.item
- Folio matches the report: yes; cipher present: yes
- What we checked: f53r "Monseigneur", "Excellence ... le 19 du mois dernier"; codes with interlinear: "145.31.67.148.186.147.176" = Labbe Lomelini, "244.176.221" = Venise, "147.46.146.87 / 232.66.45.204" = l Isle de Tabarque, consistent with his Tabarka contents; f58v excerpt (princess of Parma) not compared; his key table not applied
- Verdict: partly confirmed (method key recovered based on adjacent plaintext, extent complete). The check is a sample, not a re-solution.
- Notes: Interlinear decipherments on ff53r-54r, 57v, 58r-59r give most of the plaintext. Princess of Parma = Elisabeth Farnese (born Oct 1692, married Philip V 1714) - excerpt facts are historically right.
06 Sources
- George Lasry, with ChatGPT Astra 6 and Anthropic Opus 5.5, BnF cipher research, 10 October 2026 (sent to Daniel Bourdeau on 13 October 2026 for publication here), p. 75; his other items are listed on his contributor card.
- The working folder:
targets/clair1225/(his entry as extracted from the report, our spot-check,profile.json).