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/mercy1648.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: Archduke Leopold Wilhelm’s instruction to the abbé de Mercy, 6 June 1648
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/mercy1648.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/mercy1648.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
Date: 1648
Outcome: ciphertext-only break · partial
Read now: 98.5% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
Files: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/mercy1648 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)
OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
1. [no-key-material: needs a new source] v04 pos. 9-13 and 17-19, "no la dire?t non y si i u?": code 15 occurs twice and has no value, "t non" does not read, and an extra i stands before "una" - blocker: no-key-material; the word-frequency search over one digit re-segmentation, one substituted or deleted token and 15 = any letter finds "no la direct- ... y si una sera mas conveniente" at best (15 = c, one 32 read as 31, the extra i dropped), which moves two glyphs and is not accepted
2. [illegible: needs a new source] v05/v06 "conuenient[e ?]ar otra tanta gente" and v06/v07 "gente de [?] que a leuantada": two to three letters lost at the trimmed edge at each - blocker: illegible; the right edge of the leaf is cut, no other copy of this instruction is known
3. [illegible: needs a new source] the letters lost at the edge elsewhere (v01, v02, v03, v07, v08, v11, v12), restored by sense and not counted as read - blocker: illegible; same trimmed edge
ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
[x] siblings: the two clear instructions on ff. 20r and 21r (items 9-10) read from the images: they give the cast, the clerk's spellings and the sentence that identifies the name sign; items 7-8 (f. 17-19, French memoir of 1647) seen on the contact sheet, not transcribed
[x] clear-pages: ff. 20r and 21r are clear Spanish of the same series; no clear or deciphered copy of f. 22 itself exists in the volume
[x] known-keys: no key for the Brussels Secretaria in 1648 is known (the contributor checked DECODE R958-R965, mixed alphabets and nomenclators of more than 20 entries); none of the Fronde-period French keys applies to Spanish
[x] print: Lonchay 1896 p. 445 n. 2 (instruction of 15 April cited, not printed), Lonchay-Cuvelier-Lefevre IV no. 183 (calendar only, per the contributor); web searches for the passage found nothing
[x] key-rebuild: the contributor's anneal; here the digit-pair splits, the name sign and the camarero mayor from the siblings and the sense; the v04 values searched with a Spanish word model and not found
[x] retry: every run re-decoded after the corrections; r10, r16-r20, r24, v01 now read; v04 and the junctions v05-v07 remain
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/mercy1648/NOTES.md in full, and the
key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
Work in targets/mercy1648/. 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/mercy1648/. 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+mercy1648&page=mercy1648.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.
- no key known v04 pos. 9-13 and 17-19, "no la dire?t non y si i u?": code 15 occurs twice and has no value, "t non" does not read, and an extra i stands before "una" - blocker: no-key-material; the word-frequency search over one digit re-segmentation, one substituted or deleted token and 15 = any letter finds "no la direct- ... y si una sera mas conveniente" at best (15 = c, one 32 read as 31, the extra i dropped), which moves two glyphs and is not accepted
- hard to read on the scan v05/v06 "conuenient[e ?]ar otra tanta gente" and v06/v07 "gente de [?] que a leuantada": two to three letters lost at the trimmed edge at each - blocker: illegible; the right edge of the leaf is cut, no other copy of this instruction is known
- hard to read on the scan the letters lost at the edge elsewhere (v01, v02, v03, v07, v08, v11, v12), restored by sense and not counted as read - blocker: illegible; same trimmed edge
Already tried
- ☑ siblings the two clear instructions on ff. 20r and 21r (items 9-10) read from the images: they give the cast, the clerk's spellings and the sentence that identifies the name sign; items 7-8 (f. 17-19, French memoir of 1647) seen on the contact sheet, not transcribed
- ☑ clear-pages ff. 20r and 21r are clear Spanish of the same series; no clear or deciphered copy of f. 22 itself exists in the volume
- ☑ known-keys no key for the Brussels Secretaria in 1648 is known (the contributor checked DECODE R958-R965, mixed alphabets and nomenclators of more than 20 entries); none of the Fronde-period French keys applies to Spanish
- ☑ print Lonchay 1896 p. 445 n. 2 (instruction of 15 April cited, not printed), Lonchay-Cuvelier-Lefevre IV no. 183 (calendar only, per the contributor); web searches for the passage found nothing
- ☑ key-rebuild the contributor's anneal; here the digit-pair splits, the name sign and the camarero mayor from the siblings and the sense; the v04 values searched with a Spanish word model and not found
- ☑ retry every run re-decoded after the corrections; r10, r16-r20, r24, v01 now read; v04 and the junctions v05-v07 remain
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.