inline_plaintext = False. That record is wrong on two points. A decipherer wrote the Hungarian plaintext between the cipher lines on the folio itself, and the letter is dated Constantinople, 8 July 1707; DECODE’s 1 January–31 December range is only a placeholder for the year. The interlinear text gives the substance of the letter. The pasha of Belgrade welcomed Rákóczi’s gift and offered troops, powder and grain if Rákóczi sent six or seven thousand men against the Serbs. Hentér pressed for Rákóczi’s deputation to be heard by the grand vizier, and the audience was delayed amid confusion in the capital. The letter closes with a plea for a captive’s release. Two more Hentér letters in the fascicle (R533, R534) use the same monoalphabetic system with dense interlinear plaintext, and their closing formulae fix the key values used to check the R496 decipherment. Some middle clauses, where the decipherer’s cursive runs over the cipher, still need a Hungarian palaeographer.01 The document
- Writer and addressee: Mihály Hentér, Rákóczi’s envoy in Constantinople, to Ferenc Rákóczi II.
- Place and date: Constantinople, 8 July 1707 (DECODE: “1 Jan 1707”, place “Budapest”, the archive’s location).
- Shelfmark: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár, G 15, Caps. D, Fasc. 80, fol. 38; DECODE R496.
- Physical form: one folio, the letter on the recto and the address on the verso. DECODE lists one page but serves two image files.
- Rights: the archive’s notice on DECODE forbids publishing the scan without its permission, so no image is reproduced here.
02 The decipherment
Below is a normalised transcription of the interlinear Hungarian. Square brackets mark words that are still uncertain because the decipherer’s hand overlaps the cipher symbols. Spelling and punctuation are lightly normalised.
Az nándorfejérvári pasa Felséged ajándékát kedvesen vevé, és dicsértette; kiben mondá: ha Felséged hat vagy hét ezer hadat a rácok ellen küldene, assecurálja Felségedet, hogy Felséged hadait haddal, porral, gabonával is segítené.
[A short sentence about the kuruc envoys, hard to read.] Ide érkezvén Felséged, Uram, levelét vettem. Elmentem és kértem, hogy a fővezér előtt a deputát [kihallgatást nyerjen / bővebben meghallgattassék], melyre ígérte magát. [Közvetítője] azt izené, hogy lett volna audientiája, de a magyar […].
[…] Ezen leginkább [a] városban még a dolgok confusióban [vannak]. Idő folytában ismét sollicitáltuk az audientiát. […] izené, hogy ha bément […], voce […], bátor ad praesentandas literas […].
Felségednek a szegény rab uram felszabadulása iránt […]. Kérem Istent, Felségednek minden áldását […]. Felséged alázatos hű szolgája, Hentér Mihály.
In English. The pasha of Belgrade received Your Majesty’s gift kindly and praised it. He said that if Your Majesty sent six or seven thousand troops against the Serbs, he assures Your Majesty that he would help Your Majesty’s forces with troops, powder and grain too. […] On arriving here I received Your Majesty’s letter, my lord. I went and asked that the deputation be [heard] before the grand vizier, which he promised. [His intermediary] sent word that there would have been an audience, but the Hungarian […]. Affairs in the city are still in confusion. In the meantime we solicited the audience again […], to present the letters […]. Concerning the release of the poor captive, my lord […]. I pray God for every blessing on Your Majesty. Your Majesty’s humble, faithful servant, Mihály Hentér.
03 How it was checked
Two other letters from Hentér in the same fascicle use the same system and carry dense interlinear plaintext: R533 (fol. 40) and R534 (fol. 46). R533’s closing formula gives a clean control. The cipher group wi6xi2i4 decrypts as Felséged, which fixes w = f, i = e, 6 = l, x = s, 2 = g and 4 = d. Other repeated formulae give n = a, 0 = o, c = h, 9 = m and 5 = k; the other graphic signs cannot be typed in plain text. These values agree with the interlinear text on R496, so the glosses are a decipherment of this cipher and not a paraphrase.
Benedek Láng independently lists fols. 38, 40 and 46 as Hentér’s three 1707 letters (C.Hen.01–03) and describes their cipher as monoalphabetic.
04 What remains uncertain
- The opening report of the pasha of Belgrade’s offer, the arrival of Rákóczi’s letter and the request for an audience, and the closing formula: H (the interlinear text is legible and agrees with the key).
- The bracketed clauses of the second and third paragraphs (the kuruc envoys, the intermediary’s name, the reason the audience failed, the Latin phrases): M or not transcribed. A Hungarian palaeographer is needed for a diplomatic edition.
- The identity of the “szegény rab uram”, the captive whose release is asked for: not established.
- No full letter-by-letter re-encipherment of R496 was made; the check rests on the sibling letters’ key agreeing with the glosses.
05 Corrections to the catalogue record
- Date: 8 July 1707, not 1 January 1707.
- Status: Decrypted (a contemporary interlinear decipherment is on the folio), in place of “non-decrypted”.
- Inline plaintext: true.
- Pages: one folio, recto letter and verso address.
06 Sources
- DECODE R496, MNL OL G 15 Caps. D Fasc. 80 fol. 38: the target, with its interlinear decipherment.
- DECODE R533 (fol. 40) and DECODE R534 (fol. 46): Hentér’s other 1707 letters in the same system, used as controls.
- Benedek Láng, doctoral dissertation, pp. 84 and 109, and the related Aetas article (2014).
Research notes and profile: henter1707/ in the repository. Manuscript: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár. Images not reproduced.