Ferdinand III and the Cardinal-Infante, 1634–1640

TASK: take a partial decipherment further: Ferdinand III and the Cardinal-Infante, 1634–1640
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/ferdinand3.html

You are helping a public research project finish reading historical cipher letters. This one is read in part:
the key works, but some pieces are still open. Your job is to close one or more of the open gaps below.

THE READING
  Write-up:   https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/ferdinand3.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1634–40
  Outcome:    key from adjacent plaintext · partial
  Read now:   95.9% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/ferdinand3 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [no-key-material: needs a new source] R1887 P2.02 `n+ m/ a+ 45 hu tt` (literal crisdus, after "vero inde") - blocker: no-key-material; 6 tokens, every sign has a value (45 = s, as in communis) but the word does not resolve; gap1887.py finds no Latin word that fits
  2. [no-key-material: needs a new source] R1887 P2.14-15 `4 ib ad p xir m/ a+ 4 4) xir 4 ten h^ga != S e~` (literal ?minantiri?ti?re?at?, before "negotium") - blocker: no-key-material; 16 tokens, 4) h^ga e~ are singletons and 4 is m/n/s; LM span search (work/span1887.py) and the dictionary + LM pass (work/gap1887.py) give only fragments (minatur ... relatum)
  3. [no-key-material: needs a new source] R1887 conjectures "ausus quos", "eventus", "partibus", "quam ea" - blocker: no-key-material; singletons ltu, #, v/, 146, X, c/ have no second occurrence
  4. [too-short: needs a new source] R1887 trailing signs (V L after "ratio", V + female sign after "ea", v/ V f/ after "dedignetur") - blocker: too-short; read as terminal fillers, no context
  5. [illegible: needs a new source] R1890 one obscured sign at the end of p.1 line 1 (orato[r]) - blocker: illegible; right edge dark in the only photograph

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: R953-R955, R1885-R1892 opened; R954 (draft) is the plaintext of R1889; R1886/R1888 do not exist; no 1634 draft or key on DECODE (aaymeloglu report the SEA keys R937-R953 checked, none fits)
  [x] clear-pages: R954 draft used; R1887 has no clear copy; its own clear "promovere haud dedignetur" used as crib
  [x] known-keys: 1635 alphabet and 1640 syllabary tried on R1887 (different repertoire); Ernst's Piccolomini key tried on R1889/R1890 (does not fit)
  [x] print: Schmeh/Ernst 2017 (different letters), Tomokiyo unsolved list, aaymeloglu SOURCES (Lefevre 1934, Lunig 1712); Hildegard Ernst, MIOG 100 (1992) on Vienna-Madrid-Brussels ciphers 1635-1642 not accessible online - may print a key
  [x] key-rebuild: crib-seeded family anneal (fam1887.py) + LM context; span search for the open 16-token span
  [x] retry: all R1887 doubtful words re-read on the images (his, ltu/#, 146, o/, ll=ib, tus in ipsum, f/ in ipsum); regraded in align1887.txt; last dictionary + LM pass over the two open pieces (work/gap1887.py, 9 Oct): nothing fits
  [x] siblings: , 26 Oct 2026: the nearest possible sibling in Ferdinand's own 1634 cipher is catalogue 359, Ferdinand to Trauttmansdorff, 13 Nov 1634 (SOA Plzeň, Klášter u Nepomuka, RA Trauttmansdorffů, kart. 6, inv. č. 68), 16 days after R1887. No image is online. It is not on DECODE (full record list re-pulled, 10,106 records; the only Trauttmansdorff records are inv. 200, Kurz 1639). Cryptoole HUXXXX-1 and Cryptiana's unsolved list carry no image. Mírka's 2012 article (Západočeské archivy 2012, pp. 44-73) is print-only on soaplzen.gov.cz, and the archive library's Portaro catalogue holds only the volume's cover and table of contents. The ResearchGate copy (publication 313678538) is behind a CAPTCHA. Blocker: needs-physical-access (scans from SOA Plzeň or Mírka). If it turns out to use R1887's repertoire, it may give second occurrences of the open singletons. Also checked: Šimsová, "Šifrovaná korespondence Matyáše Gallase s císařem Ferdinandem III." (Charles University MA thesis, 2024, hdl 20.500.11956/191516, open PDF). It edits Ferdinand's 1635-38 cipher letters to Gallas (deciphered at the time; the thesis, p. 108, says their key does not survive). It does not mention catalogue 359 or give any 1634 ciphertext. Mírka 2012 offprint (supplied by Daniel, 26 Oct; n. 37-39, 135): catalogue 359 is a contemporary copy whose cipher alphabet is "exclusively two- and three-digit numbers", a nomenclator with homophones, bigrams and probably codes. It is therefore NOT R1887's graphic-sign + three-letter-code system, and cannot be a sibling for R1887's open singletons. The article prints no image of it. Mírka suggests the key may be in Vienna (FA Trauttmansdorff / HHStA).

STEPS
0. Set up. If you can run a shell, fork and clone the repository and work inside it:
     git clone https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver.git
   Then read, in this order: CONTRIBUTING.md (how a contribution is sent and credited); README.md, sections
   "Repository layout" and "Conventions" (how readings are measured and named); targets/ferdinand3/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/ferdinand3/. Add your findings to NOTES.md under a dated heading without rewriting what is there, and
   update the "## Remaining gaps" line of every gap you close. Keep WORKLOG.md there: one dated line per step
   (hypothesis, value tried, solver run, crib, control), failures included. Do not edit docs/ (the site is generated).
   If you cannot run a shell, fetch the files from the links above and keep your work in files you send with the issue.
1. Pick a gap. Start with the ones marked "doable now" (open-codes, not-attempted, left-open): the images and the key
   are online, so they need only work. A gap marked "needs a new source" (no-key-material, too-short, illegible,
   needs-physical-access) can be closed only by something new: a key
   or a deciphered sibling found elsewhere, a better image, a printed edition or calendar, a photograph from the archive.
   For those, search for that material first, and say where you looked even when you find nothing.
2. Start from the existing key and transcription in the folder. Do not rebuild the key from scratch, and do not
   re-read parts that are already read unless you find an error in them.
3. For a code group or sign value: list every place the group occurs, show how each reads with the value you propose,
   and say what still does not fit. For a passage: re-read it at the image and give the folio and line. For a missing
   letter or leaf: say where it is held and how it can be reached.
4. Measure again. Apply the key to the whole text, write the reading file, and count the share of cipher tokens that
   give sense (not an estimate). The reading is "complete" only when (1) at least 95% of its cipher tokens give sense;
   (2) no gap is left untried; (3) every letter in it is covered; (4) what stays open is scattered code groups or names,
   or pieces blocked from outside. Otherwise it stays "partial": say which gaps are still open and why.
5. Be honest. Mark every uncertain word with [?], leave unread groups as their numbers or signs, and never fill a gap
   with a plausible guess. A gap retried and still open, with what was ruled out, is worth reporting.

REPORT BACK
With a clone: open a pull request with your changes to targets/ferdinand3/. Say in the description which gaps you worked on,
  the share read before and after, and how you want to be credited (name, initials or handle, and a link).
Without one: open an issue: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/issues/new?template=further-reading.yml&title=Further+reading%3A+ferdinand3&page=ferdinand3.html
  Give the write-up, the gap you worked on (its line in Remaining gaps, or the code group, folio and line), what you
  propose, the evidence (every occurrence, the images or sources), the share read before and after, your step log,
  and the tools and AI model you used.
If you cannot open issues or pull requests, write this report for your human to send. Credit goes to the person who sends it.