Read further · read 87.3% · ciphertext-only break · partial

Lope de Soria to Charles V, Genoa, 1523

Five despatches from Genoa, June to August 1523 (DECODE R9488–R9498), in two ciphers; no earlier decipherment was found. The key of the earlier cipher was recovered from the ciphertext alone with a solver scored on 1520s Castilian; the key of the later one was rebuilt from a Soria letter of December 1523 filed with the court’s decipherment. The June and July letters are deciphered nearly throughout, the later ones in part: the Venetian league, Siena, money for the Swiss and Andrea Doria’s offer of his galleys.

Date
1523
Read now
87.3% of the cipher tokens give sense
Write-up
soria1523.html
Files
targets/soria1523
Open gaps
not yet triedno key known ×4hard to read on the scan

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/soria1523.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: Lope de Soria to Charles V, Genoa, 1523
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/soria1523.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/soria1523.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1523
  Outcome:    ciphertext-only break · partial
  Read now:   87.3% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/soria1523 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [no-key-material: needs a new source] key-A code words rip (4x), pur (3x), qed (2x), dus (2x), cop - blocker: no-key-material; context only (Venetians? V. Magestad? Swiss?), every copy writes the same groups, no key-A crib exists
  2. [illegible: needs a new source] July L10-L12 'an fec que la' and 'Q?o Lo79' (~12 signs) - blocker: illegible; R9492 and R9493 disagree sign by sign
  3. [no-key-material: needs a new source] R9491 single key-B groups taf, tu, pud (3x, no one value fits), zib, sib (2x), tac, tad, xif, toya, and ~20 signs in l.3 and l.6-7 - blocker: no-key-material; no duplicate of this letter, not in R9844 or any sibling
  4. [no-key-material: needs a new source] R9494-96 decoded, not read (v8 23 Oct 2026: 0.583 clean sentences): te, per, tep, zu, tol, the day count before 'dias', and two phrases of R9496's extra paragraph - blocker: no-key-material; three copies collated, they spell the same groups
  5. [no-key-material: needs a new source] R9497 paf [tiempo], sud [respuesta], xuf yic [hablado], z7∞ [hara] - blocker: no-key-material; bounded only by the alphabetical blocks, other words fit
  6. [not-attempted: doable now] R9498 beyond block 1 not collated - blocker: not-attempted; block 2 and f.579r of R9497 read without it

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: all eleven records and the duplicates used; R9844 (30 Dec 1523) found with the court's decipherment
  [x] clear-pages: R9844 ff. 36r-36v "A claro / B claro" aligned for key B
  [x] known-keys: BRAH 9/15 key book (R9815-R9832) checked page by page, no match; Sanchez R9768 a different cipher
  [x] print: Bergenroth CSP Spain vol. 2 no. 586 (clear parts only)
  [x] key-rebuild: key A by annealing with a Castilian 4-gram model plus hand fixes; key B from R9844
  [x] retry: (5 Oct 2026): R9493 (key-A copy of the post data, interlinear decipherment of the closing), R9495, R9496 (new paragraph) and the clear foot of R9491 used as second witnesses; every letter re-measured with measure/measure.py. Not done: other decrypted Soria letters of 1523-24 in Salazar 9/29-9/31 to attest the key-B residue
  [x] retry: (23 Oct 2026, v8): R9494 reading scored on explicit holes (0.583); decoded, not 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/soria1523/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/soria1523/. 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/soria1523/. 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+soria1523&page=soria1523.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