Georges de Selve at Venice to Francis I, 1535–1536

TASK: take a partial decipherment further: Georges de Selve at Venice to Francis I, 1535–1536
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/selve1535.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/selve1535.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1535–36
  Outcome:    known key applied · partial
  Read now:   87.7% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/selve1535 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [illegible: needs a new source] R3697 struck runs C2 tail, C3, T1, T3 (135 signs) decoded, not read - blocker: illegible; no legible gloss and the strike over every sign (re-read 22 Oct 2026; the glossed runs A, B, C1, T2 are read from the glosses, READING_R3697_struck.md); needs a colour image or the original
  2. [illegible: needs a new source] R3697 struck runs on f. 25r (A, B, C1-C3) and f. 25v (T1-T3), 182 signs - blocker: illegible; the decipherer's ruling runs through the x-height of every sign and the only images (Gallica film scan; DECODE's are screenshots of the same film) cannot separate stroke from sign; glosses give most of the plaintext; a colour image or the original would (the strike ink is lighter), so also needs-physical-access.
  3. [illegible: needs a new source] R3697 f. 25r r16 end, 5 signs - blocker: illegible; erased by the writer.
  4. [illegible: needs a new source] R3697 f. 25r r9 line-start, 1 sign - blocker: illegible; solid blot.
  5. [illegible: needs a new source] R3697 f. 25r r8-r9 "a pr[...] Anthon[e] de Le[...]", 17 signs - blocker: illegible; a blot and two cancellation diagonals cross four of the signs, so the name cannot be secured; three passes and every candidate (promis, promesse, prié, de le faire, Antoine de Leyve) tried against the legible shapes.
  6. [too-short: needs a new source] R3697 f. 25r r11 four signs before "ambassa[deur]", r5 two signs after "est", r7 first sign - blocker: too-short; isolated groups of 1-4 legible signs that fit no word; no sibling text in this cipher to test them on.
  7. [illegible: needs a new source] R3697 f. 25v L5 last group (7 signs) and the lone a before "quand" - blocker: illegible; a cancellation diagonal and a blot, then the cipher breaks off into struck clear text.
  8. [illegible: needs a new source] R4232 13 single signs (blots and corrections under the ruling, one slip) - blocker: illegible; none affects the sense. The name code is read from its gloss.

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: both records of the catalogue card opened (R3697 is fr. 3091, not fr. 3045); Tomokiyo's third witness fr. 3019 f. 97r (Rodez and Selve, 16 Nov 1536; Gallica btv1b9059994n view 151) opened: three short runs in the same cipher, each glossed between the lines by the decipherer ("seigneurie", "leur ambassadeur", …); none spells the r8 name, so it cannot settle it; DECODE images for R3697 fetched (same film, lower resolution).
  [x] clear-pages: the interlinear and marginal glosses on both letters checked and used as decipherments and cribs (f. 25r runs A, B, C; f. 25v margin; fr. 3045 ff. 44v, 45r, 48r).
  [x] known-keys: Tomokiyo's Selve key applied; it is the only key for this correspondent.
  [x] print: Charrière, Négociations dans le Levant I, pp. 265-320 page by page (Selve letters of 1535-36 printed, not these two); BnF catalogue records; Tomokiyo francis.htm and GL.htm; web search.
  [x] key-rebuild: key extended from what reads (homophones, doubling nulls, c/l slash, R = o, β = v); name code valued from its gloss.
  [x] retry: three passes on R3697 (first, second with the extended table, third gap-by-gap with the glosses as cribs); every open group retried and regraded; R4232 open spots re-read on native crops ("ceste annee", "guerre").
  [x] retry: (5 Oct 2026, push to 95%): Gallica re-checked for a colour digitisation of fr. 3091 (none: only the film scan, 105 views); native views 27/28 re-fetched into `img/`; f. 25v T1 and f. 25r C2 re-transcribed on native crops at 1.6-2x: only the shapes already read separate from the strike; strike removal by a fitted line plus vertical interpolation (`img/destrike.py`) erases the sign bodies with the stroke; C2 middle sign string tested against gloss-led candidates ("de ses maistres", "grand credit", "du Turc") and r8 "a pr[...]" against a paie / a prevenu / a prié with ∂ = a and ∂ɜ = r: no fit. Nothing moved; the 95% bar is not reachable on these images.
  [x] retry: (22 Oct 2026): the struck-run glosses taken as the contemporary decipherment; C1 gloss re-read at 2.2x; glossed runs split off and read (169 signs), the rest left with the image blocker (R3697_struck_reread_log.md).
  [x] retry: (23 Oct 2026, v8): R3697 unstruck cipher written out as running text and rescored (0.733 explicit holes); keeps read

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/selve1535/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/selve1535/. 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/selve1535/. 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+selve1535&page=selve1535.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.