At a glanceExisting decipherment · complete
- The letter
- Fr. P. de Santa Cruz, of Benedict XIII’s circle, writing from Avignon, to Francesc Climent, Benedict XIII’s chamberlain and agent, 22 Oct 1399.
- Where
- Arxiu Capitular de Barcelona, the Schism papers Climent left to the chapter (doc. 922), today the paper part of the series Cisma d’Occident. Not digitised.
- How it was deciphered
- By Sebastián Puig y Puig, canon of Barcelona, who printed it in 1920 in Pedro de Luna, appendix XXIX, pp. 469–470, with the deciphered passages in italics.
- What it says
- The French ambassadors leave Avignon angry, and the besieged papal household is left in periculo mortis.
- Still open
- The ciphertext: no image of the letter exists, so the cipher and its key are unknown. The original is in the Arxiu Capitular de Barcelona, not digitised. Puig’s printed text is not in this repository either (Google Books now blocks it to scripts), so its words are not reproduced here (reading audit, 22 October 2026).
- Credit
- The decipherment is Puig’s (1920).
01 The letter
Francesc Climent, called Çapera, was Benedict XIII’s chamberlain and treasurer and later bishop of Barcelona; he left his papers to the cathedral chapter. Among them Sebastián Puig y Puig found fourteen letters partly or wholly in cipher, deciphered them, and printed them in the appendix of Pedro de Luna, último papa de Aviñón (1920). This is one of them: Fr. P. de Santa Cruz to Climent, 22 Oct 1399 (appendix XXIX, pp. 469–470; doc. 922). Puig prints about 100 deciphered words. The French ambassadors leave Avignon angry, and the besieged papal household is left in periculo mortis.
The originals are not digitised, and the archivist Josep Mas noted that Puig studied many of the Schism papers at home in 1920–30 and did not return them all. Puig’s print may be the only witness.
02 The cipher and its key
Puig never printed a key, and the only image of any of these ciphers is his facsimile of one page of Benedict XIII’s own letter of 22 June 1400. From that page the key of Benedict’s letters was rebuilt here: a plain substitution, one sign per letter. Puig writes of “la clave o claves”, the key or keys, he recovered, and nothing shows whether this letter, from another writer, used the same one. So it has its own entry. Benedict XIII’s letters are on Benedict XIII to Climent, 1399–1403 (a different or unverified cipher, with its own page); the other letters of his circle each have their own page for the same reason: Jafet to Climent, 1400, Exea to Climent, 1408, Comuel to Climent, December 1415, Comuel to Climent, June 1416.
03 What remains
- The ciphertext. No image of the letter exists, so its cipher, its key and Puig’s reading cannot be checked. Blocker: needs the original in the Arxiu Capitular de Barcelona.
Full texts
The transcription and the decryption of every document on this page, so that the reading can be used and checked. Short files are shown here; all are in the repository.
Puig 1920, app. XXIX
Fr. P. de Santa Cruz to Francesc Climent, 22 October 1399: the French ambassadors leave, and the besieged household (of Benedict XIII at Avignon) is 'in periculo mortis'.
Decryption: books?id=CuOlkxWnk-EC
04 Sources
- S. Puig y Puig, Pedro de Luna, último papa de Aviñón (1387–1430), Barcelona 1920, appendix XXIX, pp. 469–470; p. 466 n. 2 on the italics. Full view on Google Books (CuOlkxWnk-EC).
- J. Baucells i Reig, El fons Cisma d’Occident de l’Arxiu Capitular de la Catedral de Barcelona, Barcelona 1978, pp. 11–13.
Notes and profile: targets/santacruz1399/; the list of all fourteen cipher items is in targets/benedict1399/NOTES.md.