At a glanceExisting decipherment · complete
- The letter
- Tolomeo Gallio, Cardinal of Como, papal Secretary of State, to Anselmo Dandini, nuncio in France: the cipher enclosure of his letter of 16 May 1580.
- Where
- Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Segreteria di Stato, Francia 283C f. 52. DECODE R72, “partially decrypted”; catalogue item 244.
- The cipher
- Two-digit figures for letters, with homophones, and three-digit groups closed by a mark for words and titles.
- How it was deciphered
- The clerk’s decipherment is written below the figures. George Lasry’s key for a later enclosure (R73) gives nonsense here: the frame and nomenclator are the same, the letters are reassigned. The R72 letter values were rebuilt by annealing and checked against the clerk’s text.
- What it says
- Talk of the King’s affair with a nun is everywhere; even if untrue, he should stop going to that monastery, and the nuncio is to press him hard.
- Still open
- Four nomenclator groups and a few letter codes seen only in the anneal.
Until 14 October 2026 this page also carried R73, the enclosure of Como’s letter of 8 August 1580 on the same affair. It was deciphered by Lasry with his own letter key, a different key, and has its own page.
01 The document and the key
Francia 283C holds the Secretariat’s original letters and ciphers to the nuncio for 1580: “Corrispondenza fra il Cardinale di Como (Gallio) e Monsignore Dandini Nunzio a Parigi”. R72, f. 52, is a single page of figures filed with Como’s clear letter from the Villa, 16 May 1580 (ff. 50–53, attached to the record). The decipherment is written in clear below the figures.
George Lasry reconstructed a key for the other enclosure on DECODE, R73 (attachment D3190, 24 October 2020). Letters are two digits with an even second digit, vowels have one or two homophones, and there are no nulls. Nomenclator groups are three digits followed by a special mark, for pronouns, titles and common words: 124^ S.S., 824^ N.S., 822^ V.S., 224^ S.M.tà, 266^ che, 200^ non, 800^ mente, 988^ essere.
R72 fits the same frame. Parsed with a small dynamic program (two digits, or three digits plus the mark, which SofPe’s 2019 transcription gives as 7 or t/+), every group except 38 falls inside Lasry’s table. The nomenclator words come out right, but the letters between them are nonsense. The letter codes had been reassigned:
| letter | R72 | R73 (Lasry) |
|---|---|---|
| a | 14 52 81 | 50 92 |
| c | 18 83 | 14 |
| e | 12 62 | 18 52 |
| i | 30 72 (24) | 26 62 |
| l | 22 | 28 |
| n | 36 | 22 |
| o | 38 82 | 34 72 |
| r | 44 | 40 |
| t | 28 48 | 44 |
| u/v | 50 92 | 46 82 |
The full R72 table, with the codes seen only in the anneal marked, is in the notes. Measured on its own key, 495 of the 509 groups of the parse have a value (97.2%): 473 letter codes and 22 nomenclator groups. The rest are two unread nomenclator groups, code 32, and 11 single figures left over from misreadings in the transcription.
02 R72: Como to Dandini, 16 May 1580
This is the clerk’s decipherment at the foot of f. 52. The decryption with the rebuilt key agrees with it, except that the cipher has commercio where the clerk wrote concetto:
La voce et l’opinione della pratica del Re Chr.mo con la monaca è uscita tanto publica che se ne ragiona hormai per tutto, et da ogniuno è tenuta per vera: onde quando bene non fusse vero il fatto come vien detto a V.S. da chi presuppone di saperne l’intiero, è pure sì grande il scandalo che nasce dal concetto di S. M.tà in quel luogo, che per levarsi la infamia che gli ne viene, dovrebbe astenersi in tutto dall’andar più a quel monasterio: et V.S. doverà ricordar questo punto, et incaricarlo gagliardamente, già che si ha voluto persuaderle che il fatto non è vero. Quanto alla pratica scoperta per conto del credito et sforzo del denaro per la spesa, N. S.re persevera nella sua deliberatione persuaso a ciò da molte ragioni che non occorre scrivere.
“Talk of the Most Christian King’s affair with the nun has become so public that it is discussed everywhere and taken as true by everyone. So even if the thing were not true, as Your Lordship is told by someone who claims to know the whole of it, the scandal it causes is so great that, to rid himself of the infamy, His Majesty ought to stop going to that monastery altogether. Your Lordship is to raise this point and press it on him hard, since they have tried to persuade you that it is not true. As for the scheme uncovered over the credit and the raising of money for the expense, His Holiness holds to his decision, for many reasons that need not be written.”
03 Method
- The record was fetched from DECODE with a session cookie: the page image, the clear covering letter, SofPe’s transcription, and Lasry’s key, which is attached to R72 although it was made for R73.
- Lasry’s key on R72 gave nonsense. A plain two-digit tokenisation, annealed as a free homophonic cipher, collapsed or failed to converge.
- R72 was parsed in Lasry’s frame instead. The letter values were annealed by swaps over a fixed letter multiset, scored with Italian 4-grams from a Renaissance corpus, with the nomenclator words kept as known plaintext. Five of six restarts agreed.
- The clear block on f. 52 was transcribed and aligned with the output. Three codes were corrected (22 l, 62 e, 72 i), and the leading stray “1” was set aside.
04 What remains uncertain
- Nomenclator groups 766^, 866^, 030^ and 448^ have no value yet. In context they fall at “come vien detto a V.S.” and “presuppone”. Letter codes 24, 00, 11 and 32 are graded M (from the anneal only). The text itself is grade C, from the contemporary decipherment confirmed by the key.
- The monastery and the nun were not identified here.
Full texts
The transcription and the decryption of every document on this page, so that the reading can be used and checked. Short files are shown here; all are in the repository.
R72, f. 52, 16 May 1580
The Cardinal of Como tells the nuncio Dandini that talk of Henri III's affair with a nun has become so public that, true or not, the King should stop going to that monastery, and that Dandini should press this on him hard; on the scheme over credit and the raising of money, the Pope persists in his decision. The decryption file is the contemporary decipherment written below the figures, which the decryption with the R72 key matches word for word except commercio/concetto.
Transcription
#CIPHERTEXT: #CATALOGE NAME: ASV_i1025_SdS_France_283C-1 #IMAGE NAME: 1.png #TRANSCRIBER NAME: SofPe #DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION: 15 November 2019 #TRANSCRIPTION TIME: 30 min #TRANSCRIPTION METHOD: Manual #COMMENTS: There seems to be a sign that’s something between a four and a two in the cipher. This sign appears several times. The sign is marked with 2/4? #IMAGE NAME: 1.png 1 1 2 2 1 4 5 0 3 8 1 8 1 2 6 2 4 8 2 2 8 2 4 0 7 2 3 6 3 0 3 8 3 6 1 2 2 0 1 2 2 2 5 2 4 0 4 4 5 2 4 8 3 0 1 8? 5 2 2 0 6 2 2 2 3 4 4 1 8 3 8 3 6 2 2 5 2 3 4 8 2 3 6 5 2 1 8 5 2 6 2 9 2 4 6 1 8 3 0 4 8 5 2 9 6 6 7 4? 0 5 0 1 6 2 2 3 0 1 8 5 2 2 6 6 7 4 6 1 2 3 6 1 2 4 4 1 4 2 6 3 0 3 8 3 6 1 4 2 8 8 2 4 4 3 4 5 2 3 0 3 6 6 7 4 8 5 0 4 8 3 8 1 2 4 8 1 2 0 1 4 3 8 2 6 3 6 3 0 5 0 3 6 3 8 1 2 4 8 1 2 3 6 5 0 4 8 1 4 3 6 6 7 9 2 1 2 4 4 1 4 3 8 3 6 2 0 1 2 7 6 6 7 1 6 1 2 3 6 2 0 0? 2 4 5 0 4 6 1 2 9 2 1 2 4 4 3 8 3 0 2 2 2 4 1 4 4 8 3 8 8 6 6 7 5 0 3 0 7 2 3 6 1 2 0 1 2 4 8 3 8 1 4 8 2 2/4? 2 0 1 4 2 6 6 7 4 0 4 4 1 2 4 6 9 0 4 0 3 8 3 6 1 2 2 0 3 0 4 6 1 4 3 6 6 7 3 6 1 2 2 2 3 0 3 6 4 8 1 2 4 4 3 8 1 2 4 0 5 0 4 4 4 6 3 0 2 6 4 4 1 4 3 6 2 0 1 2 3 0 2 2 4 6 1 8 5 2 3 6 2 0 1 4 3 0 3 8 2 6 6 7 3 6 1 4 4 6 1 8 2 2 2 0 1 4 2 2 1 8 3 8 9/3? 6 3 4 1 2 4 4 1 8 3 0 8 2 2 0 3 1 2 2 2/4? 3 0 3 6 3 8 8 t/+? 2 2 5 0 3 8 2 6 8 2 2 6 6 7 3 6 6 7 2 2 1 2 5 0 1 4 4 4 4 6 3 0 2 2 3 0 3 6 2 4 1 4 3 4 3 0 1 4 2 6 6 7 2 2 3 0 3 6 1 2 5 0 3 0 1 2 3 6 1 2 2 0 3 8 5 0 1 2 4 4 6 2 1 6 1 2 1 4 4 6 4 8 1 2 3 6 1 2 4 4 4 6 3 0 7 2 3 6 4 8 9 2 4 8 3 8 1? 2 0 1 4 3/2? 2 1 4 3 6 2 0 1 4 4 4 4 0 3 0 5 0 2/1? 4 3 8 8 t/+? 3 4 3 8 3 6 1 4 4 6 4 8 3 0 1 2 4 4 8 2 1 2 4 8 8 2 2/4? 2 0 3 8 9 2 1 2 4 4 1 4 4 4 3 0 1 8 3 8 4 4 2 0 1 2 4 4 2 8 8 t/+? 4 0? 5 0 3 6 4 8 3 8 1 2 4 8 3 0 2_, 6 1 6/8? 1 4 4 4 3 0 1 8 1 4 4 4 2 2 3 8 2 6 1 4 2 6 2 2 3 0 1 4 4 4 2 0 5 2 8? 0 0 1 4 2 6 6? 7? 2 8 1 4 5 0 3 8 2 2 5 0 4 8 3 8 3 6 6 7 4 6 5 0 1 4 2 0 1 2 4 4 2 2 1 2 3 0 2 6 6 7 1 2 0 1 2 2 2 2 4 1 4 4 8 3 8 2 0 0 1 2 3 6 3 0 1 2 3 6 4 8 1 2 | 1__ 8__ 8__ t__/+__? 1__ 4__ 2__ 2__ 1__ 4__ 4__ 0__ 4 4 1 4 4 8 3 0 1 8 5 2 4 6 1 8 3 8 4 2 1 2 4 6 1 2 3 6 6 7 1 8 3 8 3 6 4 8 8 2 2 0 1 2 2 2 1 8 4 4 1 2 2 0 3 0 4 8 3 8 1 2 4 8 4 6 1 6 8 2 4 4 4 6 3 8 1 2 0 1 2 2 2 8 4 4 1 3 6 6 7 2 2 1 4 4 6 4 0 1 2 4 6 1 4 1 4 4 3 6 6 7 4 6 1 2 9 2_.? 1 2 4 4 1 4 3 6 1 2 2 2 1 4 4 6 5 0 1 4 2 0 1 2 2 2 3 0 1 6 2 2 4 4 1 4 4 8 7 2 3 8 3 6 1 2 3 6 6 7 4 6 5 0 1 4 4 6 3 8 5 2 1 8 3 0 8 2 2 0 1 4 3 4 3 8 2 2 4 8 1 2 4? 4 1 4 2 6 3 0 3 8 3 6 3 0 2 6 6 7 2 0 0 3 8 1 8 3 8 4 4 1 2 4 6 1 8 4 4 3 0 5 0 1 2 4 4 2 4 1 2 2 6 4 8 4 6? <CLEARTEXT IT ???>
Decryption
# R72, ASV Segr. Stato Francia 283C f. 52, 16 May 1580: the contemporary decipherment written below the figures on the same leaf, as transcribed in NOTES.md ("The reading"), copied verbatim 22 Oct 2026. The decryption with the R72 letter key agrees word for word except that the cipher has "commercio" where the clerk wrote "concetto". Unread nomenclator groups 766^, 866^, 030^, 448^ (766^ ≈ "come vien detto a V.S.", 866^ ≈ "presuppone"; not pinned).
La voce et l'opinione della pratica del Re Chr.mo con la monaca è uscita tanto publica che se ne ragiona hormai
per tutto, et da ogniuno è tenuta per vera: onde quando bene non fusse vero il fatto come vien detto a V.S. da chi
presuppone di saperne l'intiero, è pure sì grande il scandalo che nasce dal concetto di S. M.tà in quel luogo, che
per levarsi la infamia che gli ne viene, dovrebbe astenersi in tutto dall'andar più a quel monasterio: et V.S.
doverà ricordar questo punto, et incaricarlo gagliardamente, già che si ha voluto persuaderle che il fatto non è
vero. Quanto alla pratica scoperta per conto del credito et sforzo del denaro per la spesa, N. S.re persevera nella
sua deliberatione persuaso a ciò da molte ragioni che non occorre scrivere.
## English (from NOTES.md)
"The talk of the Most Christian King's affair with the nun has become so public that it is discussed everywhere and
held true by all: so even if it were not true, as someone who claims to know the whole told Your Lordship, the
scandal is so great that to rid himself of the infamy he should stop going to that monastery altogether. Press this
on him hard, since they have tried to persuade you it is not true. As to the scheme uncovered over the credit and
the raising of money for the expense, His Holiness persists in his decision, for many reasons not worth writing."Translation
<!-- English translation of texts/R72_decryption.md (Claude Opus 5.5, 23 Oct 2026): the contemporary decipherment written below the figures on f. 52 (the key decryption agrees word for word except "commercio" for the clerk's "concetto", translated here as the clerk wrote it). --> # R72, ASV Segr. Stato Francia 283C f. 52, [the Secretariat of State to the nuncio Dandini], 16 May 1580: English translation The rumour and opinion of the Most Christian King's affair with the nun has become so public that it is now talked of everywhere and held to be true by everyone: so that, even if the fact were not true, as Your Lordship is told by someone who presumes to know the whole of it, the scandal that arises from the idea of His Majesty in that place is still so great that, to rid himself of the infamy that comes to him from it, he ought to abstain altogether from going to that monastery any more; and Your Lordship must bring this point up and urge it on him strongly, since they have tried to persuade you that the fact is not true. As to the scheme uncovered concerning the credit and the forcing of money for the expense, Our Lord persists in his decision, persuaded to it by many reasons that need not be written.
Key: key.md, DOC_R72_D3190_3190.txt
05 Sources
- DECODE record R72: image, SofPe’s transcription (2019), and George Lasry’s reconstructed key for R73 (2020), whose frame and nomenclator R72 shares. Login required.
- Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Segreteria di Stato, Francia 283C.
Notes, decoder and annealer: targets/dandini1580/.