F. Le Rouge to the Chancellor, 11 July, year unestablished (BnF Français 2971)

01 The letter

Shelfmark	BnF Français 2971
Sender	F. Le Rouge
Recipient	the Chancellor
Date	11 July, year unestablished
Language	French
Report status	Transcribed; Deciphered
Ciphertext	623 elements, 610 identified (97.9%)

02 The key

28 symbols, 22 letter signs, 2 in nomenclature, 4 unidentified

George Lasry’s reconstructed key table — George Lasry’s reconstruction of the key, as drawn in his report (p. 79). Image: George Lasry, BnF cipher research (10 Oct 2026); manuscript: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Français 2971, Gallica btv1b9059907g view 61.

03 The decipherment

Manuscript lines with the cipher, from George Lasry’s report — The manuscript lines of the excerpt (f32r, cipher lines 1–3), from the report, p. 79. Image: George Lasry, BnF cipher research (10 Oct 2026); manuscript: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Français 2971, Gallica btv1b9059907g view 61.

f32r, cipher lines 1–3

… lettres du Roy à Seigneurie n’eussent sceu arriuer à meilleur poinct, aultant qu’elle [e]stoit mal contente apres la demonstration qu’elle auoit faicte pour le roi…

Translation. … letters from the king to the Signoria could not have arrived at a better moment, given that it was displeased after the show of support it had made for the king …

04 Plaintext and other sources

Where a decipherment or clear copy already existed, as George Lasry gives it:

Interlinear plaintext: Interlinear plaintext on the same page, f32r.

05 Our check

This result is George Lasry’s. This project did not re-solve the cipher: it checked one sample against the Gallica image and recorded what it found.

Batch B. Image checked: https://openapi.bnf.fr/iiif/image/v3/ark:/12148/btv1b9059907g/f61/pct:0,35,100,25/2000,/0/default.jpg
Folio matches the report: yes; cipher present: yes
What we checked: Gallica f61 = fol. 32 (his link had no folio); interlinear over cipher lines 1-3 reads "lres du Roy a la Sgrie neussent sceu arriver a meilleur point... quelle estoit mal contente apres la demonstration" = his excerpt; symbol-by-symbol decode not done (dense small script)
Verdict: confirmed (method key recovered based on adjacent plaintext, extent complete). The check is a sample, not a re-solution.
Notes: Meta link points to volume, not folio; letter signed Le Rouge on f61, 11 July. 97.9% identified.

06 Notes and corrections

f32r is Gallica image 61; the report links the volume only.

07 Sources

George Lasry, with ChatGPT Astra 6 and Anthropic Opus 5.5, BnF cipher research, 10 October 2026 (sent to Daniel Bourdeau on 13 October 2026 for publication here), p. 79; his other items are listed on his contributor card.
f32r = image 61 (the report links the volume only)
image checked in the spot-check
The working folder: targets/lerouge/ (his entry as extracted from the report, our spot-check, profile.json).