During the Thirty Years’ War emperor Ferdinand III (1608 -1657) used a secret writing system. It has never been solved.
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Ferdinand III was Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 until his death in 1657, as well as King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. He played an important role in the Thirty Year’s War.
Letter 1
A few years ago, Prof. Leopold Auer from Vienna provided me a (partially) encrypted letter Ferdinand III had written to his brother Leopold Wilhelm in 1640. This letter consists of four pages:
Here is a transcription table:
Thanks to reader Finn Klein from Fürth I can provide the following transcription of the encrypted parts:
21 13 A2 04 2Q 0A 33 0Q
T3 02 01
00 2B 03 4A 3Q 0R 20 34
44 BC
94 11 4S 41 13 3D A0 GE 3M W1
0N 91 1T 42 30 9N 1Q 12 40 1B 32 12 24
4H 1B A0 AT 2Q KL IJ TU
1J WO 4A 23 44 3D
22 63 24 13 35
41 29 25 26 11 43 41 65 27
44 43 67 34 12 89 24 12 43 99 76 22 13 24
55 56 34 41 12 43 46 48 47
13 66 31 77 12 88 43 99 55
12 3F 15 41 10 0E 24 3F
42 01 2A 59 44 04 43
SI 1Q 12 42 3O A0 05 43 QT 12 13 43
TQ 0T DW 41 24 00
42 66 11 33 53 12 24 00 40 13 A5 05 3A
22 2A 13 NO 2R 01 43 A0 21 12 23 63 73
44
12 24 12 44 12 24 65 42
23 13 12 21 53 46 36 41 24 65 11 42 55 41 13 88 24 12
43 64 89 13 44 43 6X X4 13 4F
24 12 34 53 63 31 12 13 88 74 24 11 41 12 41 14
81 E1 SA 1E 40 1Q T2 01
43 41 65 12 43 18 32 21 63 24 11 42
31 41 55 66 A2 01 2T 23 23 1Q 0F
TS Q0 V1 12 73 34 12 13 AQ
34 AT BX 42 3V 34 65 77
34 41 ˩0 00 EA U0 QR 11 VC
21 13 62 43 24 41 89 12 43 55 12 24 32
34 12 66 77
13 31 43 12 AQ 11 T3 30 VQ 3S
21 14 B1 OE 4B 45 13 01 33
33 12 24
EF 13 54 3A T1 12 43 3D 01 42
31 12 N3
33 12 13 43 66 42 11 21 13
53 62 41 44 23 11 87 77 41 13 14 43 84 73
33 14 12 23
QD 01 ZA 1Z B2 12 T3 22 F2
ON IW M1 FX MJ 44 33
34 11 71 88 32
11 43
13 44 24 11 33 12 43 41 78 73 68 21 24
0A 3Q 14 3A FT 00
33 13 A0 1S 2Q 42 AA 22
13 43 41 02 4B 13 31 33 12 A2
AT 4F 0A 4B 40 02 TB U0 13 42
05 WD
13 67 31 78 33 96 34 62 O4 23 SQ
02 2D 00 34 QA 12 43 14
E0 1F 24 03 5A 12 T3
12 13 67 12 43 33 52 1Q F1 05 24 03 31 QB 31 01 20 1F TB
12 44 12 A2 2Q 0D 12 S0 34 13 98
QA 04 23 XD 43
42 11 21 21 12 43
24 12 13 34 34 1F X3
20 $B 01 4X 1F 21 4T 2A 35
0B 3V 42 31 0X JK 01 24
4F 62 A3 SX TV 24 3F
AS BX 23
21 13 34 62 42 31 55 54 72 O4 22
A3 04 Q0 43 0F 0D 4D 2F
1Y 2T 3X V0
23 68 12 52 34 46
34 46 12 49 23 58
2F 03 65 3A 40 67 1F 43 33
11 42 31 62 75 46 12 42
Letter 2
In a book (Hildegard Ernst: Geheimschriften der Habsburger im Dreißigjährigen Krieg. In: Durchhardt/Strosetzki: Siglo de Oro – Decadencia, 1996) I found another encrypted letter Ferdinand III wrote. This one is from 1641. Again, only a part of the letter is encrypted, while the rest is in the clear (this is not unusual for old encrypted texts).
The cipher
Both letters are probably encrypted in the same cipher. The cipher characters always show up in pairs. Each cipher character is chosen from an alphabet consisting of the numbers from 0 to 9 and about 27 symbols.
My guess is that the encryption system used is a nomenclator and that every cipher character pair is a nomenclator codegroup.
In some parts of the ciphertext only numbers are used. A possible explanation for this is the following: pairs (i.e. codegroups) consisting of numbers only represent single characters, while pairs containing symbols represent words. Based on this hypothesis the following should be checked:
- Does a frequency analysis of the number-only pairs reveal anything?
- Is there an order in the number-only pairs (for instance a possible separation between vowels and consonants)?
Hereby it has to be taken into account that a nomenclator might contain nulls (meaningless codegroups) and homophones (several codegroups with the same meaning).
Breaking this encryption system might reveal hitherto unknown information about Ferdinand III. This could be interesting for Austrian historians.
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Further reading: An encrypted letter from World War 2
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