Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
manuscript dates to around 1473 AD, in Naples, Italy. In it is a spell for making
a
philosopher's stone
, but the essential portion of the spell (about five lines) is
enciphered. In alchemy, a base metal was considered to be a state of “disease”
in a noble metal such as gold. Thus, to “cure” the disease was to turn the base
metal into gold. The philosopher's stone was considered to be the vehicle for
actually transmuting base metals into gold. Hence, having the spell to create
the stone meant great power in the hands of those who held knowledge to do
so.
Casanova
An amusing anecdote concerning the breaking of a cipher in the eighteenth
century occurred in 1757 involving the famous Casanova, who received a cryp-
togram for safekeeping from his wealthy friend, Madame d'Urfe. She believed
that the cryptogram could never be cryptanalyzed given that she held the key-
word in her memory and had never written it down or disclosed it to anyone.
Nevertheless, Casanova was able to do just that. He determined the plaintext
of the enciphered manuscript, which contained a description for the transmu-
tation of baser metals into gold. He was also able to recover the key via his
calculations. She was incredulous at the revelation. Casanova later wrote in his
memoirs: “I could have told her the truth — that the same calculation which
had served me for deciphering the manuscript had enabled me to learn the word
— but on a caprice it struck me to tell her that a genie had revealed it to me.”
The keyword? NEBUCHADNEZZAR, or in Italian
NABUCODONOSOR
.
Shakespeare
The next story is about perhaps the greatest story-teller of all,
William
Shakespeare
, also known as the Bard of Avon. In 1878, Ignatius Donnely, an
American, self-styled, pseudo-scientist, began looking for steganographic evi-
dence in the Shakespearean works that the “real” author was Sir Francis Bacon.
Others, largely amateurs, followed in his footsteps looking for cryptographic ev-
idence, which of course, they found since in works as vast as Shakespeare's, one
can devise schemes to read anything one wants into the works. There is even
speculation, and a kind of analysis (by
Baconites
) of passages from the original
folio:
WilliamShakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies
. published in
1623, that there is an enciphering of Sir Francis Bacon's name (with various
spellings) therein. However, the vast majority of serious scholars see it as man-
ifest that Shakespeare is indeed the author of the works. We will learn more
about Sir Francis Bacon in Section 1.5. Shakespeare appears to have been aware
of the
need
for ciphers, since he was certainly aware that messages can be inter-
cepted by the unintended. In
Henry V
, a plot is being hatched against the king.
Henry uncovers the plot, ostensibly through an interception of letters written
by the traitors, proving their guilt, to which they confess, and they are put to
death. There is no evidence of cryptography here, but the clear need for it is
present, since interception of sensitive documents can lead to dire consequences,
such as the aforementioned executions.
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