A encrypted Masonic book from the year 1760
Can my readers help decipher four pages of a coded Masonic book?
When it comes to encrypted books, most people first think of the Voynich Manuscript.
Quelle/Source: Beinecke Library, Schmeh
Encrypted books of the Freemasons
While the Voynich Manuscript is indeed an exceptional document, there are numerous other encrypted books. To provide an overview, I created an Encrypted Book List years ago, which has since grown to over 100 entries.
Also on my list are numerous encrypted books made by Freemasons. These include mnemonic devices, each showing the first letter (or other abbreviation) of a word. The following picture shows an example (00040 on my list):
Quelle/Source: Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library
Such mnemonic devices are, of course, not encrypted documents in the true sense, because they cannot be decrypted unambiguously. Their purpose is that someone who already knows the text can recall it. However, there are also Masonic books with real encryption. As the following list shows, the members of this organization have come up with quite a few over the centuries:
- Browne’s Master Key (00033): This Masonic book was published in London in 1794.
Quelle/Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Folger Manuscript (00038): This book was written in 1827 by a New York Mason named Robert Folger.
Quelle/Source: Folger Manuscript
- Triangular book (00050): The exact origin of this book is not known to me. The date of origin is estimated to be around 1750. The plain text is written in French.
Quelle/Source: JSTOR
- Rebus-Buch (00081): This is a Masonic book full of rebus puzzles.
Quelle/Source: Museum of Freemasonry, London
Incidentally, other secret societies have also produced coded books, including the Oculists, the Oddfellows, and the Association of Maiden Unity and Attachment.
A Masonic book from 1760
Tobias Schrödel, known to Cipherbrain readers as a comedy hacker, Stern TV contributor, crypto book expert, and crypto postcard collector, has now brought another encrypted Masonic book to my attention. It is currently available on eBay. With a price of 1200 Euro it is unfortunately not cheap.
According to eBay, the book dates from 1760, and a total of four enciphered pages are shown in two illustrations. Here is figure 1:
Quelle/Source: eBay
Illustration 2:
Quelle/Source: eBay
Then there is an unencrypted page:
Quelle/Source: eBay
How to decode the book
Code-breaking skills are not necessary to decipher this book, because the following page shows the key:
Quelle/Source: eBay
Can anyone read the explanation for the following symbols that are on this sheet?
Quelle/Source: eBay
Let’s try if we can decrypt the first line on the first page with the key:
Quelle/Source: eBay
I come up with the following plain text:
NUTZEN DER LOGE ERFORDERT
So the above additional symbols are used as spaces.
If someone would decrypt more lines, that would be very helpful. Also the content of the unencrypted part is certainly interesting. Can anyone say more about this book? Where did it come from? What was its purpose? I will gladly accept comments.
If you want to add a comment, you need to add it to the German version here.
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Further reading: Wer kann diesen Freimaurer-Stempel entschlüsseln?
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