Read further · read 96.0% · ciphertext-only break · partial

Passano to Francis I on Wolsey’s assets, 1530

A ciphered Italian account of Cardinal Wolsey’s cash, credits, plate and revenues, in an eighteenth-century copy of a London letter of March 1530 (BnF Clairambault 331 f. 157). The key of this letter substitution, where a dot over a sign makes a different letter, was recovered from the ciphertext alone; 386 of 402 surviving signs (96%) give coherent Italian. A page of cipher omitted by the copyist is lost.

Date
1530
Read now
96.0% of the cipher tokens give sense
Write-up
joachim1530.html
Files
targets/joachim1530
Open gaps
no key known ×2needs the archive

Hand this page to your AI agent

Give your agent (Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant that can open web pages) this address and ask it to do the task on the page:

https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/joachim1530.html

Or copy the block below into the chat. It is the whole task: the reading, every open gap, what has been tried, the steps, and how to report back.

TASK: take a partial decipherment further: Passano to Francis I on Wolsey’s assets, 1530
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/joachim1530.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/joachim1530.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1530
  Outcome:    ciphertext-only break · partial
  Read now:   96.0% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/joachim1530 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [no-key-material: needs a new source] `[D]` (four occurrences), `[Q]` (two), `[S2]` (one): blocker: no-key-material. Wolsey and a royal title are plausible for D and S2; Q may be a pronoun or title. None has a verified expansion. Do not substitute whole words as if recovered from a key.
  2. [no-key-material: needs a new source] `so [D]` twice, the extra stroke in `parutite`, and the `dese`/stacked-sum junction: blocker: no-key-material. All occurrences were inspected and decoded; an independent copy or original is needed to settle abbreviation, copy errors, segmentation and numerical phrasing. Nine additional tokens are excluded from coherent coverage despite assigned letter values. The 13 emendations elsewhere are separately audited.
  3. [needs-physical-access: needs a new source] A page and three lines explicitly omitted by the copyist: blocker: needs-physical-access (or an independent complete digital copy). These are not present in the supplied manuscript. No token denominator or plaintext can be manufactured for them.

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: reopened manuscript f. 149, Gallica f141; its Greek/geometric inventory is different. Its heading/body dating is inconsistent. It does not supply this account's key. Neighbouring clear material is not a decipherment.
  [x] clear-pages: the full f148–f150 opening was inspected. After the account are a declared omission, valediction and accompanying clear letter, not a plaintext of the account.
  [x] known-keys: the existing comparison with Ferrara Passano/Sormano material, fr. 3096, yielded no matching inventory. No historical key for this London account was located. The account alphabet is now reconstructed explicitly.
  [x] print: checked local Le Grand/Letters and Papers research and verified no. 6307's April date. Shelfmark, correspondent and wording searches yielded no parallel. Cryptiana was unavailable on recheck; no fresh full-site search is claimed.
  [x] key-rebuild: dotted transcription, seeded many-to-one annealing, repeated-context key extension, complete image checking, all 16 lines decoded, un anno restored.
  [x] retry: all rare signs and awkward transitions reread. D, Q, S2, so and dese remain explicit and uncounted; further expansion requires outside evidence. The omitted continuation cannot be attacked from this copy.

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/joachim1530/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/joachim1530/. 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/joachim1530/. 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+joachim1530&page=joachim1530.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.

Open gaps

gold can be done now: the images and the key are online, it needs only work. grey needs a new source first: a key, a better scan, an edition or the archive.

Already tried

Send a result

One closed gap counts: a code group valued, a passage re-read, a key or clear copy found elsewhere. It is credited to you on the write-up.

Open a further-reading issueOther kinds of reportHow credit works← All partial readings