01 The letter
| Shelfmark | BnF Français 3575 · f56r |
|---|---|
| Sender | Unidentified |
| Recipient | Unidentified |
| Date | Undated |
| Language | French |
| Report status | Transcribed; Deciphered |
| Ciphertext | 782 elements, 774 identified (99.0%) |
02 The key
43 codes, 43 letter codes The key was recovered from the ciphertext alone.
03 The decipherment
f56r, L07–L09 — 56r
…pas dans sa lettre et pretend ne povvoir obeir. Vovs scaves de qvelle importance est Clermont et ez [m]ains de qvi il entrera. C’est à vovs, Monsi…
Translation. …not in his letter, and claims that he cannot obey. You know how important Clermont is and into whose [hands] it will fall. It is for you, Sir…
f56r, cipher lines L09–L13
ez [m]ains de qvi il entrera. C’est à vovs, Monsievr, à y povrveoir, ce qve vovs povvez faire librement car vovs estes av dessvs de l’envye, et ne me mettre en bvtte parce qve cela me rvineroi[t] envers cevx de la religion. Il i a avssy vn afa…
Translation. into whose [hands] it will fall. It is for you, sir, to attend to this, which you can do freely since you are above envy; and not expose me to attack, because this would [ruin] me in the eyes of those of the religion. There is also a matt…
f56r, L19–L22 — 56r
[b]on essient. C’est à vovs à adviser sy vovs lvy vovlez procvrer ce bien car ie tiens qv’il en est digne et ce cera chose profitable av service dv roy, à vovs et à moy.
Translation. in [good] earnest. It is for you to decide whether you wish to obtain this favour for him, because I consider him worthy of it, and it would benefit the king’s service, you and me.
04 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/btv1b90605406/f116.item
- Folio matches the report: yes; cipher present: yes
- What we checked: f56r line 20: "27 58 60 36 52 58 27 44 61 53 55 30 42 36 33 22 55" = l u y v o u l e z p r o c u r e r = "lvy vovlez procvrer", matches his L19-22 excerpt
- Verdict: confirmed (method key recovered from ciphertext-only, extent complete). The check is a sample, not a re-solution.
- Notes: Page is all-cipher numeric (two homophones per letter, 18-61). Sender/recipient/date unknown; mentions Montgomery and Clermont (Wars of Religion, c.1560s-70s).
05 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. 10; his other items are listed on his contributor card.
- The working folder:
targets/fr3575f56/(his entry as extracted from the report, our spot-check,profile.json).