A letter from Rome to the abbé d'Orbais, 23 August 1589

Summary. The catalogue entry supposed that one of three keys bound in BnF fr. 3413, nos. 53, 61 and 69, might read the letter at no. 62. None of them does. No. 53 is a numerical key and the letter has no figures. No. 61 is an Italian key with a different set of signs. No. 69 is a League key in which the square sign is e, where the letter needs n. The letter is almost all in clear. It comes from a secretary of Cardinal Pellevé in Rome, dated 23 August [1589], and carries the news of Henri III’s death. About ninety signs are in cipher, in short groups. Satoshi Tomokiyo identified the cipher as the Nevers–Piles alphabet and read one name in it. His table comes from BnF fr. 3612, which is not digitised, and it is partial. It was filled out here from BnF fr. 4715 f. 2, a letter of 1586 in the same cipher whose decipherer wrote the plaintext above each line. The readings: Mons. Cassin, la protection, vostre regne, depeschera, mon maitre a esté retiré, and the signature, probably Baron. Status: read in part. The bound keys were tested and none fits. About thirty signs, most of them code signs, are still open.

01 The letter

Fr. 3413 is a Nevers-collection volume of League papers, on Gallica as btv1b52510705j. No. 62 is ff. 126r–127r (views 259–261), and the address is on f. 127v: A Monsieur, Monsieur l’Abbé d’Orbais, Con^er au Conseil estably a Paris pour la S^te Union, A Paris. The abbé d’Orbais is Jean de Piles. He was the League’s envoy to Rome earlier in 1589 and later a deputy of the clergy at the Estates of 1593.

The letter is dated only “du lieu que vous sçavez ce xxiij^e d’Aoust”, but its content fixes the year. It reports how the news of the King’s death came to Rome. A courier from Spain had passed through Lyon on the 12th. The Grand Duke of Tuscany sent an express, which reached Rome on the 20th. It carried the Duke of Lorraine’s copy of a letter of 8 August from his agent in Paris, the s^r Bardin:

le Roy a esté tué, et c’est le Roy de Navarre qui l’a faict faire, l’on a proclamé Roy a Paris Mons. le Cardinal de Bourbon, et au mesme temps le Roy de Navarre s’est aussi faict appeller Roy par ceux de sa secte

The writer apologises that his senior colleague, “son aisné de mesme charge”, has been kept from writing by a fever for a fortnight. He asks Piles to keep him in mind, and he signs in cipher.

02 The three bound keys

Each key was photographed from the Gallica scan and tested against the ciphered groups:

No.	Folio (view)	What it is	On no. 62
53	f. 109 (227)	A French key of letters to two-digit figures, with a nomenclator 1–99. Tomokiyo identifies it as Nevers collection no. 42.	Does not apply: the letter has no figures.
61	f. 125 (257)	An Italian key for the Savoy–Piedmont theatre (Birago, Saluzzo, Carmagnola…): a symbol alphabet, doubles, nulls, word signs, and a nomenclator 80–204.	Different signs. It cannot give Cassin or protection.
69	ff. 137–138 (281–284)	A French League key: a place-name nomenclator, boxed numbers, and a symbol alphabet written sideways on f. 138.	Here the square is e and there is no W, so Cassin does not come out.

BnF fr. 3413 f. 138, the symbol alphabet of key no. 69, turned upright: a to z with two or three signs each — Key no. 69, f. 138, the alphabet turned upright. It is a League key of the same period, but its square is e and its signs are not the letter’s.

03 The cipher, and a key from 1586

Tomokiyo, cataloguing the Nevers ciphers, noted that no. 62 “appears to employ the Nevers–Piles Cipher” and read Mons. Cassin in it. Cassin appears as Pellevé’s secretary in the proceedings of the Estates of 1593. His table for that cipher was rebuilt from Piles’s own letters to Nevers of 1586 in BnF fr. 3612. That volume is not on Gallica, and the table has gaps. The same cipher is used in BnF fr. 4715 f. 2 (btv1b52509819x, view 17), the Cardinal de Guise to Nevers from Soissons, 6 October 1586. That letter is a full page of cipher, and the decipherer wrote the plaintext loosely above each line.

BnF fr. 4715 f. 2r, cipher lines with the 1586 decipherment written above them: encores ... nouvelles de ... qui, and Certes vous aurez subiect d'estre satisfaict de nous — Fr. 4715 f. 2r. Over the second cipher line the decipherer wrote *encores … nouvelles de … qui s’est*. Over the third, *… vous aurez subiect d’estre satisfaict de nous … Je loue Dieu … aultant de content[ement]*.

Matching the words to the signs gives values the table lacks and confirms the ones it has:

Plaintext above	Signs	Values gained or confirmed
[jay] receu vre	ʃ ⊡ θ 8 y ɔ · b ⊡ x	⊡ r, θ e, 8 c, y e, ɔ u, b v
encores	θ H W ce m x ÷	H n, W c, ce o, ÷ s
nouveles	◻ ce ◻′ φ x + y ÷	◻ n, φ v, + l
subiect d’estre	÷ b z g θ W ꝏ · 7 θ q δ m x	z b, g i, ꝏ t, 7 d, q s, δ t
Je loue Dieu	ẋ y · + ce ɔ θ · 3 ẋ θ ɔ	3 d, dotted x i
monde, home, chacun	∇ ce ◻ 7 θ · 4 ce ÿ y · W 4 v 8 ɔ ◻	4 h, ∇ m
de, qui	1 · ε	word signs, as in Tomokiyo’s table

04 What the ciphered words say

BnF fr. 3413 f. 126v: Les jugemens de Dieu sont fort profons et inscrutables, then cipher signs, dedans deux jours, more signs, Devant cette — F. 126v. “… et inscrutables. *b 1 6 Ⱥ ÷ W 4 æ ⊡ − ʃ* dedans deux jours *Ƒ 3 tt h Ⱥ ◻*. Devant cette …” The first group is *[…] depeschera*, where 1 is the sign for de.

Context in clear	Signs	Reading
Mons. … detenu d’une fiebvre	W V ÷ 9 ◻	Cassin (Tomokiyo)
Il ne fault oublier … que vous sçavez	Ⱥ v · b ⊡ m ooo Ⱥ W 8 φ tt ◻	[la] protection
Maintenant que vous serez a … si l’histoire est vraye	ɔ tt ÷ ooo ⊡ Ⱥ · ɱ æ η ◻ Ⱥ	vostre regne
… inscrutables. … dedans deux jours	b 1 6 Ⱥ ÷ W 4 æ ⊡ −	[…] depeschera
Depuis que … a esté retiré	⌘ Ƒ τ x tt ◻ ∇ V 9 ooo ⊡ Ⱥ	[code signs] mon maitre
vostre tres humble servit^r … p^nte ses tres humbles recommandations	2 V ⊡ m Ħ	Baron, probably

BnF fr. 3413 f. 127r: Depuis que, then a decorated square and other signs, a esté retiré, more signs, qui, more signs — F. 127r. “Depuis que *⌘ Ƒ τ x tt ◻ ∇ V 9 / ooo ⊡ Ⱥ* a esté retiré *ʃ ɔ θ ɸ ɔ ◻ η − 7 6 ɸ 2* qui *W tt ◻ Ⱥ 9 ⊡ x x* plus particulierement que nul aultre.” The first group ends *mon maitre*. The two after it are still open.

The signature is the writer’s own name. In the key, 2 is b, and protection fixes the tailed m as o, so the name reads b a r o and a last sign. That sign is n if the name is Baron. A “S^r Baron” writes in the same League dossier of 1593 as Piles (Gallica btv1b9059406b, piece u, “Du S^r Baron, du 7 aoust”). That is circumstantial, and nothing in this letter confirms it.

The decorated square ⌘, and Ƒ, τ and ʃ, look like word or title signs. They do not occur in fr. 4715. “Depuis que […] mon maitre a esté retiré” suggests something like Monseigneur le Cardinal mon maitre. If Ƒ is le, the group after dedans deux jours would read le doyen. That is a guess and is not counted as a reading.

05 What remains open

The code signs ⌘, Ƒ, τ and ʃ, and what exactly will be “despatched” within two days.
“Il ne vous fault rien dire pour ce qui touche φ tt o V æ ʃ ÷”: vo…a…ts, perhaps vos faits, but the signs do not support that.
The two groups after a esté retiré. A pattern search over period French finds no reading consistent with the values above.
Some sign values differ between the two sources. The plain m is r in fr. 4715, but the tailed m is o here, and two squares (n and u) are told apart only by small differences of form.
The route to the rest is Tomokiyo’s source, BnF fr. 3612, which holds Piles’s deciphered letters of 1586. It has to be seen at the BnF.

06 Sources

BnF, fr. 3413, nos. 53, 61, 62, 69: Gallica btv1b52510705j, views 227, 257, 259–262 and 281–284. Contents from the BnF notice cc49884s.
BnF, fr. 4715, f. 2: Gallica btv1b52509819x, view 17.
S. Tomokiyo, “Catalogue of Ciphers (Mainly Related to Duke of Nevers)”, cryptiana. See the sections on BnF fr. 3413, fr. 3612 (the Nevers–Piles table) and fr. 4715.
BnF, fr. 3612: notice cc50062c, not digitised.

The notes, the pattern-search and annealing scripts and the fetcher are in the repository (orbais/). Page images are not committed.

A letter from Rome to the abbé d’Orbais, 23 August 1589