01 The letters and the key
Galeazzo Visconti, a Milanese captain in French service, wrote from the League armies in Lombardy after the collapse of Lautrec’s expedition to Naples. The letter to Angelo Bolano (fr. 3045 f. 28) has twenty cipher lines, the name Bolano in clear at the head, and a clear close: che sarà la fine de la mia, cum ricomandarme ala sua bona gra[tia]. Da Alexandria ali XV de ottobre 1528. The letter to Francis I (fr. 3096 f. 91r, the right half of Gallica view 94) opens in clear, Syre: Sapendo, runs nineteen lines in cipher and closes in clear with a plea for his pay, dated in campo in la pieve de Loccate ali XV de Giugno M D XXIX and signed Galeazo Vesconte.
The cipher replaces each letter with an invented sign, with homophones for the vowels, a sign written like far, and code groups for names. Lasry’s table and its extension on the Landriano letter gave the letters. These two letters added:
- a bare Λ doubles the letter after it: queΛla = quella, ceΛsarò = cessarò, tuΛte = tutte, aΛsai = assai; the dotted Λ is E;
- the far sign is CHE, and also NTO (altrotanto, mancamento, quanto);
- ρ = F (fine);
- θ is both D (veda, tarditate, perduta) and G (ogni, coligati, Puglia);
- q is H (hano, che), and F in the letter to the King (facio, fece, farà).
02 To Francis I, pieve de Locate, 15 June 1529
Second pass, sign by sign. [48] and [rr] are code groups; (?) marks a decipherment whose sense is not established; [..] a sign not deciphered. Clear text in italics.
Syre: Sapendo il timore hano Venetiani di la pace, principalmente per non esere astreti contra il Turco, il che mai farano, [rr] heri cum il duca d’Urbino et providitore fece l’oficio de vostro bono servitore, in asecurar lei che mai Vostra Maiestà abandonerà la sua Signoria, et altrotanto dise dil duca di Milano, il quala [cum] gran pena mai si asecurerà, etiam cum l’andata di [48]. Manco li doi signori, prometo quella, rimasero asai satisfati(?). [rr] dirò bene ch’io facio de le pratiche da me a bono proposito, de le quale mai cessarò s[e]in che viva, né vogli no tacere che fuo [......](?) [cherì](?) in consiglio paresse, che se fuose concluso de provare de s[ρ]forcire Milano. Mia opinione è che fu(?) li farà per loro mancamento, ponendo a campo a tutte hore dificultate per le [..] quale durano, che noi seiamo quelli dicano de prima. De non farsi il che, non li andarà: fato se [48] ne(?) crede com[e](?) [se terrò](?) farà, et il tuto, Sire, è a uno fine non bono.
Syre, io suplico V[ost]ra M[aes]tà cum tuto il core mio che me facia pagare in mane del mio li mei duoy quarteri, ne puosso piu viuere, per la fede et sacramento li porto et debio, che sarà la fine, cum pregare Dio che dona a V[ost]ra M[aes]tà buona et longa vitta. Datum in campo in la pieve de Loccate ali XV de Giugno M D XXIX. Le vostre humile et obeyent servitor et subject Galeazo Vesconte.
In English
The Venetians fear the peace, above all being bound to act against the Turk, “which they will never do”. Yesterday [rr] did the office of the King’s good servant with the Duke of Urbino and the Venetian proveditor, assuring them that His Majesty will never abandon the Signoria, and said as much of the Duke of Milan, who will hardly ever feel secure, even with the departure of [48]. The two lords were satisfied all the same. [rr] will report well of the negotiations Visconti conducts, which he will not stop while he lives. He had urged in council that the army should try to force Milan. In his opinion the others will fail through their own shortcomings, raising difficulties at every hour. “And the whole thing, Sire, is heading to no good end.” In clear he begs the King to have his two quarters’ pay sent, for he can no longer live. Six days later Saint-Pol’s army was destroyed at Landriano (21 June 1529).
03 To Angelo Bolano, Alessandria, 15 October 1528
Second pass, retry and push pass. [42], [rr], [qq], [ep] are code groups; (!) marks a value taken from sense alone.
Bolano. [42] Solo ve dà questa [rr]: Savona che è stata socorsa, per la tarditate dil mondo; dico che lui(!) proveda a tuto [qq], altramente tuto irà sempre male, de l’andata de Montigia per intrare in Savona; sep[a]r[at]ione(?) sono causa si questo capo è stato de la reputacione in fo[u]ra, come batale perduta: ogniuno voleva andare ale stancie, ch’era a disperare li coligati, quali poco mancano eserlo, et pur al(?) tuto tanto agio, dito, trovando espedienti che la cosa, che disperata, lo a(?) nocamento se harà cum Urbino; et se vederà reconciare almanco male cosa durisima. Tuti li aventureri partiti per loro poltronia et ingani de loro capitanei, quanto ci è uno soldo, il che causa che Italiani che le hano [rr] li denari de nansi sono in Puglia. Designati qua(?) [rr] se mandava in as[.]sedio(?) [..] havese(?) rimostrato la ruina [qq]; li lance che ne [.]convengano sono pochi, et serano assai tardi, e a(?) penso chi andrano paga gionti a [..]npiano(?); Dio scia come sono malo contenti per servicio di [ep], che obsante ogni mio mal tratamento, che sarà la fine de la mia, cum ricomandarme ala sua bona gra[tia]. Da Alexandria ali XV de ottobre 1528.
In English
The only news [rr, perhaps nova] is that Savona has been relieved, “for the slowness of the world”. Someone should provide for everything [qq], or things will keep going badly. Visconti mentions the expedition of “Montigia”, probably René de Montejean, to get into Savona, and says divisions have cost this command its reputation abroad: “like a lost battle, everyone wanted to go into winter quarters”. The allies are close to despair; measures taken with Urbino may patch things up. The adventurer infantry have left through their captains’ cowardice and deceit, since hardly a soldo is paid, and the advance money is “in Puglia”, with the wreck of Lautrec’s army. The lances are few and will come late. God knows how discontented the men are in the service of [ep], the King, “which, despite all my ill treatment, will be my end”.
04 Method
Both letters were first opened in the Landriano session, to test the key: it gave Italian at once (“mal tratamento”, “che disperat-”), and the crossed sign turned up in numeral pairs, 42 and 48, which made it the figure 4. A second pass then took each letter line by line from the Gallica natives: the right half of view 94 deskewed by 1.6°, measured line centres, crops at 1.4–3×, one token per sign in a token file (sign=VALUE, VALUE? for sense open, ? for not deciphered). The counts come from a script over those files. The letter to the King gave the doubling mark and the NTO value of far; applied back to the letter to Bolano they gave assai and quanto ci è uno soldo. The open stretches of the Bolano letter were cut again at 2–3× and every alternative value tried. DECODE’s public records give the folio of each record, and the two clear closes were checked again on the images for the day.
A last push pass took the Bolano stretches as phrases and tried the sibling value y = B. The sixteen signs of line 5 that had been transcribed as in fora com[u]nal are in fo[u]ra, come batale, running into line 6: “come batale perduta, ogniuno voleva andare ale stancie”. Line 20, onsante, is obsante, Lombard for obstante with the T dropped, as in sep[a]r[at]ione: “che obsante ogni mio mal tratamento”. Both loro in lines 11–12 are written with a doubled R, LO-R-R-O, and give sense. The dotted p of line 2 occurs only once; it is taken as U from sense alone, giving dico che lui proveda, and is flagged. Enhanced crops (autocontrast and unsharp mask) of lines 2, 4, 15–18 and a web search for the letters and their context changed nothing else. The Bolano letter went from 715 to 741 of 778 signs (95.2%). Without the doubled-R loro (2 signs) and the dotted-p lui (3 signs) it would be 736 (94.6%), below the 95% threshold, so the complete extent rests on two judgement calls.
05 What remains
- Codes, no key material: [48] (twice, to the King; probably Saint-Pol, who fits “a casa de [48]” at Landriano too, I/M), [rr] (twice to the King, three times to Bolano; a French agent in the first, nova fits the second, M), [qq] (twice) and [42] (once), not decoded; [ep], the peu of the Landriano letter, probably the King (C).
- fr. 3045 l.15, the stretch before havese; l.18, a place name [..]npiano: no place near Alessandria fits the signs (Serravalle, Novi, Gavi, Ovada, Acqui, Castelpiano tried) (I). Single signs elsewhere: the u of fo[u]ra, pur al, lo a, a penso.
- fr. 3096 L12, fuo [N]SANTE cherì, and L18, se terrò: values clear, phrases unresolved (M). Smaller doubts: satisfati with an I for T (L9), an extra E in s[e]in (L11), dotted p = N in ne crede (L17, M).
These stretches occur only once and three passes did not settle them; they are counted as not deciphered. Letter by letter: to the King 667 of 699 signs (95.4%), to Bolano 741 of 778 (95.2%); both together 1408 of 1477 (95.3%).
06 Sources
- BnF, Français 3045, f. 28, no. 24: Gallica btv1b9060156p, view 54 (address leaf view 55). DECODE R4230.
- BnF, Français 3096, f. 91r, no. 47: Gallica btv1b9060015d, view 94, right half. DECODE R4256.
- George Lasry, key table “BNF Francais 3045f28 and 3034f154 – Italian” (5 Nov 2023), and Satoshi Tomokiyo, “Galeaz Vesconte’s Cipher (1528–1529)”: cryptiana, “George Lasry’s decipherments”. Key only; no text of either letter.
- Sibling: Visconti to Montmorency, Landriano, 30 August 1528 (BnF fr. 3034 f. 154, DECODE R4223).
Key, token files, decipherments and notes: targets/visconti1529/ in the repository.