01 The documents and the key
| Record | Folios | Date | Language | What it is | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R9411 | 248r–v | Buda, 6 Feb 1534 | Latin | King John (Zápolya) of Hungary to the dukes of Bavaria; interlinear decipherment of the time | read, 96% of words |
| R9412 | 250r–251r, cover 251v | Ofen (Buda), 8 Feb [1534] | German, Latin passages in clear | an agent at Buda to a duke of Bavaria, under cover to Cornelio Sperantio | read in part, 95.0% (89% without supplies) |
The cipher is a homophonic substitution on the graphic sign set of the volume (↓ ω π 4 8 ÿ …), written without word division, with clear Latin passages left standing in the cipher (“Ceterum”, “Misimus nunc”, “Et primo” … “Quarto”). Main values: w/4 e, q n, v r, x/L s, 5 a, 3 u, y t, 7 m, m i, c c, 9 o, d l, 6 d, 8 n, D f, A b, K rr, Y ll. A few signs are polyphonic (π b/w/o, 4 e/i, ∃ d/ch, a double stem for u/v/k/g), and a few stand for pairs or words: 2o = et in Latin and und in German, oo = qu, r+ = sch, a+ = der. A ‡ before a double colon is a paragraph null.
Checked against the key rebuilt in kaa4591b for R9415 (18 April 1533), the common signs all agree (w e, x s, 3 u, v r, y t, q n, 5 a, 7 m, 9 o, 8 n, d l, 6 d, D f, c c). One session found the key from R9411’s gloss; the other applied the R9415 key unchanged, without the gloss, and reached 91% on R9411. The two routes confirm each other.
02 R9411: King John to the dukes, Buda, 6 February 1534
From the decipherment (sperantio1534/r9411/reading_r9411.txt), in the original Latin, with gaps as […]:
Salutem et omne bonum. Illustrissimi principes domini ac fratres carissimi. Accepimus literas Vestre et ea quae […] etiam intelleximus quae […] secretarium suum scripserunt. Vestre ita sibi persuadere velint, quidquid nos in rem commodum et dignitatem earum et fratrum atque amicorum suorum id facere possumus, id semper libentissimo animo facturi sumus. […] videtur tamen esse res communicanda cum illustri domino regni nostri gubernatore, qui propediem hic apud nos futurus est. Videtur enim nobis esse satius de hac re capere consilium ipsius quam si ex abrupto apud potentissimum Turcarum imperatorem rem tentaremus. … Ceterum Vestre medio magnifici […] capitanei et consiliarii nostri … ex parte minerarum auri, argenti et aliorum metallorum, quae res nobis vehementissime fuit cordi, … cum Dei auxilio rem aggredi. … Misimus nunc hunc servitorem nostrum Nicolaum Freeberger ad Vestras … Bude sexta Februarii, anno etc. xxxiiii.
In English: King John will do whatever he can for the dukes, whom he addresses as brothers. Their request must first go to the governor of his realm (Lodovico Gritti), who is expected shortly: better to take his counsel than to try the matter abruptly with the Turkish emperor. The news his adversaries spread is false. Through his captain and councillor he has begun on the gold, silver and other mines, a matter very close to his heart. He sends his servant Nicolaus Freiberger to the dukes, invites them to take on the working of such mines, and asks for masters skilled in them. A postscript asks for the Bavarian mining ordinance (“ordinacionem rerum montanarum”) by a sure messenger.
03 R9412: a newsletter from Buda, 8 February 1534
German, no gloss. It opens by repeating what the writer sent on 22 December by an unsure messenger. That date, in line 1, belongs to the earlier letter; this one is dated at its foot, “Datum Ofen, des achten Februarii”. From the decipherment (sperantio1534/r9411/reading_r9412.txt; […] not deciphered, braces supplied from sense, capitals in clear on the page):
wie erstlich, was der canczler herr Stephan Werbeczi bei dem Turcken hab ausgericht. ET PRIMO: so hat er dem Ungerland mit dem Turcken einen ewigen frid gemacht und angestossen. SECUNDO: das alle stett und flecken … als nemlich Peterwardein und […], mit Titil, Salmaulack {Salankamen} … TERTIO: … die zwitrachten, als von wegen des titels der kunig … QUARTO: … SED TAMEN PER MAXIMOS SUOS CONATUS NIHIL ALIUD IMPETRARE POTUIT QUAM ILLUD QUOD …
The chancellor Stephan Werbőczy has obtained at the Porte an everlasting peace between Hungary and the Turk. The Danube places are named: Peterwardein (Petrovaradin), Titel, Salankamen. The dispute over the kings’ titles and the frontier towns is to be settled, and the writer has sent a copy of the Sultan’s letter. Then come plans against Transylvania and the mines. Fridrich Schmalcz has made himself head of the mining business and sends men skilled in mining to Pest; his factor at Nuremberg is named, and “herr Caesar” at Vienna. A bishop sends the duke his greetings in clear Latin. The b/w and d/t pairs share signs, so “beczi” is Werbeczi.
04 Method
- Both letters transcribed sign by sign from full-resolution line crops of the DECODE images (R9411 2,040 signs, R9412 2,725), in four passes on R9411 and three on R9412.
- R9411: a solver (simulated annealing) with a Latin language model (
la), started from and held to the values of the interlinear gloss (r9411/solve.py,run7.txt); checked by hand against the gloss. - R9412: the R9411 key refitted with a language model of sixteenth-century German (
de-1500s), with pair and digraph signs set from context; then a manual pass on the sense (84% → 89%) and a check of every gap (89% → 95.0%). - Rejected, because each raised its own score while making the German worse: two automated look-alike repairs (
confuse.py) and two key optimisers driven by a lexicon measure (lexopt.py,lexopt2.py). - Control: a second, independent transcription of all five pages (4,745 signs) with the R9415 key and a word-level fit (
fit.py) gives R9411 at 91% without the gloss.
05 What remains uncertain
- R9412: 31 words open and 37 supplied from sense (grade C). The open places include the second Danube fortress (l. 10), “Caiianer” (l. 44), the bishop (l. 56, perhaps Varad, grade I), Schmalcz’s Nuremberg factor (l. 51), the signature (l. 65) and about twenty single words at blotted signs. The independent transcription does not resolve them either. Blocker: illegible.
- R9411: thirteen single-word gaps at blotted signs, including the captain’s name on l. 19 (“Casparis?”, grade I), where the gloss is also faint. Doubtful words such as cumis, composuit and decretam are grade M. Blocker: illegible.
06 Sources
- Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Kurbayern Äußeres Archiv 4591, ff. 248–251, via DECODE records R9411 and R9412 (images by login; not public domain, reproduced here only as transcription).
- Sibling key: R9415 in the same volume, rebuilt in this project (kaa4591b).
- No printed edition found (web search; Géváy, Magyar Történelmi Tár, the literature on Werbőczy’s 1533–34 embassy).
Transcriptions, key, decipherments and the working files of both sessions: sperantio1534/ in the repository.