01 The letter
| Shelfmark | BnF Clairambault 460 · numerical cipher, pp289–303 |
|---|---|
| Sender | Not established |
| Recipient | Not established |
| Date | 1650–1653 volume; individual dates unchecked |
| Language | French |
| Report status | 9/9 pages transcribed; 9/9 pages deciphered in part |
| Ciphertext | 2,080 visible elements, 1,558 identified; additional ciphertext hidden or damaged |
02 The key
104 numerical codes: 32 letter values, 55 syllables, 10 word values, 7 nulls
03 The decipherment
p296
Il vous suplie de le vouloir informer clairement de vos intentions, soit pour la guerre, ou pour la paix.
Translation. He begs you to inform him clearly of your intentions, whether for war or for peace.
04 Plaintext and other sources
Where a decipherment or clear copy already existed, as George Lasry gives it:
- Interlinear plaintext
- Literal interlinear plaintext on the same cipher pages, pp289–303.
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 B. Image checked: none (no Gallica link; Clairambault 460 ark not resolvable offline)
- Folio matches the report: unclear; cipher present: yes
- What we checked: his p296 crop: interlinear "Il vous suplie de le vouloir informer clairement de vos intentions soit pour la guerre ou pour la paix" over 3-digit groups = his excerpt; numeric values not decoded by me
- Verdict: partly confirmed (method key recovered based on adjacent plaintext, extent partial). The check is a sample, not a re-solution.
- Notes: 1,558/2,080 visible (74.9%), 9/9 pages only in part; sender, recipient, dates not established.
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. 116; his other items are listed on his contributor card.
- The working folder:
targets/clair460num/(his entry as extracted from the report, our spot-check,profile.json).