Bellaso's 1552 cipher recovered in Venice. Issue 6 (2nd November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bonavoglia, Paolo
• Is Part Of: Cryptologia. Volume 43:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 459
• Page End: 465
• Publication Date: 2019-11-02
• Subjects: Giovan Battista Bellaso -- Johannes Trithemius -- Leon Battista Alberti -- polyalphabetic substitution; Cryptography -- Periodicals; 652.8
• DOI: 10.1080/01611194.2019.1596181
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0161-1194

Abstract

Abstract: In his 1553 paper Giovan Battista Bellaso presented his first polyalphabetic cipher, writing that this was an improved reprint of a previous cipher of 1552 that had been printed in Venice on a loose leaflet without instructions. There was much speculation about this early cipher, since no print of that cipher was reported to have been found. Now a printed copy of that leaflet has been found in Venice by the author, and this paper is a report of that finding.