Seven encrypted diaries

On Reddit, several users have posted photos of their encrypted diaries. Can someone crack the encryptions?

As previously announced, I will be giving an ICCH talk on the Voynich manuscript on Sunday evening, along with Elonka Dunin.

Quelle/Source: Schmeh

Primarily, in this presentation we will compare the Voynich Manuscript with other encrypted books. This small circle talk is also a dress rehearsal for the “Voynich Conference” (November 30 – December 1, 2022), which will take place as an online event in Malta and where Elonka and I will be present with a talk. Anyone who wants to attend the ICCH talk on Sunday is welcome to send me an email. Participation is free of charge.

As comparison material, Elonka and I will use the encrypted books on my Encrypted Book List. When we submitted the talk, there were 118 books on it. I have since added eight more works. I will present these today.

Tractatus de instrumentis artis memorie

Already for some time three coded books of the humanist Johannes Fontana (1395-1455) are on my list. Now I have added a fourth (00126): “Tractatus de instrumentis artis memorie”. This work describes some curious devices that were intended to be used for noting information (instead of paper and ink, which was expensive and cumbersome) and is richly illustrated. The cipher used is a monoalphabetic substitution, which can be easily solved.

Quelle/Source: Kranz, Oberschelp

Besides coded passages, there are also numerous uncoded passages in this work. In addition, there is an encoded word that is notated in a different script. It can be seen at the bottom of the following picture:

Quelle/Source: Kranz, Oberschelp

Apparently this microcryptogram is still unsolved. Can a reader say something about it?

If you want to know more about “Tractatus de instrumentis artis memorie”, I recommend the book “Mechanisches Memorieren und Chiffrieren um 1430” by Horst Kranz and Walter Oberschelp.

According to Wikipedia, Johannes Fontana wrote some more books besides the now total of four works on my list, which are also (partly) ciphered. Unfortunately, I have no information on this. Perhaps a reader can help further.

Seven diaries

The other seven new additions to my list are encoded diaries. All seven are only a few years old and were published on Reddit by their respective authors. I named them after the respective Reddit users.

Of course, one has to wonder if it makes sense to decipher and read other people’s diaries. However, since all the examples listed below were published by the authors themselves, this should be allowed. Several solutions have already been published in the Reddit comments.

IuminomenaI diary

This diary (00119) is encrypted in a Pigpen cipher.

Quelle/Source: Reddit

lilvonz diary

The author of this encrypted diary (00120) wants to know if his encryption method is secure. Can a reader answer this question?

Quelle/Source: Reddit

Calvinyl diary

The Diary of Calvinyl (00121) contains numerous illustrations, but according to the author they have no meaning.

Quelle/Source: Reddit

General-Farm-4655-Diary

I wonder if this cipher (00122) can be cracked. It looks like a monoalphabetic substitution.

Quelle/Source: Reddit

Starguything-Tagebuch

The diary of Starguything (00123) is also encrypted, although this is only noticeable at second glance:

Quelle/Source: Reddit

Thapenguino diary

This cipher (00124) looks unusual:

Quelle/Source: Reddit

Jwfraustro diary

The last diary in the collection presented today (00125) is written in the Elian script and should therefore be readable:

Quelle/Source: Reddit

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Further reading: Zwei verschlüsselte Tagebücher: Wer kann sie knacken?

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