01 The letter
| Shelfmark | BnF Français 4696 / 4698 · graphical cipher, ff5r/62r–v, ff30r– |
|---|---|
| Sender | Scipion de Gonzague (Français 4696); not established for Français 4698 |
| Recipient | Duke of Nevers (Français 4696); not established for Français 4698 |
| Date | 1585–1589 (Français 4696); 1590 (Français 4698) |
| Language | Italian |
| Report status | 2/7 pages transcribed; 5 more in part; 7/7 pages deciphered in part |
| Ciphertext | 3,078 recorded groups, 1,147 identified; 8 further groups with unresolved boundaries |
02 The key
66 symbols/codes: 41 letter signs, 1 digraph, 24 in nomenclature
03 The decipherment
f62v, three complete body lines 5–7
giudico ? il aiutarle. Quanto poi a la persona sva egli si ?ferisce prontisimo a servirla et particolar[men]te in caso di difesa o vero di esaltatione di lei, fuor di questi ? solo de sua salute, ri[gu]ardo al interesse
Translation. …helping you. As for his own person, he [offers?] himself very ready to serve you, especially in defending or advancing your position. Apart from these matters, ? only his welfare, with regard to the interest…
04 Plaintext and other sources
Where a decipherment or clear copy already existed, as George Lasry gives it:
- Interlinear plaintext
- Français 4696, f5r: interlinear plaintext for this cipher. Français 4698: corresponding historical enciphering/plaintext worksheets on f26r/f93r and the f17v/f105 comparison support the checked f104r marked codes.
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 A. Image checked: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9059540q/f127.item
- Folio matches the report: yes; cipher present: yes
- What we checked: Fr. 4696 f62r: Italian letter "Ill.mo et Ecc.mo S. mio" with clear text (Padre Toledo, Giulio Cesare, Pasqua) and Greek-like graphic cipher runs; excerpt is from f62v, not imaged here; sign-level decode with his table not completed (glyph forms at this scan only loosely match his crops)
- Verdict: partly confirmed (method key recovered based on adjacent plaintext, extent partial). The check is a sample, not a re-solution.
- Notes: Only 1147/3078 groups identified (37%); 4698 letter mostly unread. Interlinear on f5r gave the key. Two volumes/senders bundled in one entry.
06 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. 51; his other items are listed on his contributor card.
- The working folder:
targets/scipion1585/(his entry as extracted from the report, our spot-check,profile.json).