972Cyphersolver
30 42 28 50 61 10 27 · 12 15 22 14 41 30 24 37 33 16
e n b u s c a · d e l e n e m i g o
en busca del enemigo · 72 = Principe de Darmstadt · 67 = Archiduque

Imperial camp in the Wetterau → Ottavio Piccolomini · homophonic number cipher of Spanish with two code groups · 12 August 1646 · key rebuilt from the glosses of sibling letters, read in part

A Spanish officer to Ottavio Piccolomini, camp in the Wetterau, 12 August 1646

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One bare letter of 216 two-figure groups in a number table whose key was rebuilt from the interlinear decipherments of two sibling letters; it reads in part and reports Giessen, Turenne’s junction with the Swedes and the Prince of Darmstadt’s refusal to disarm.

Daniel Bourdeau · posted

Method: key recovered based on adjacent plaintext · Extent: partial (86% of the cipher)

Contributed by WAINUT (solution, transcription, verification) · Also credited · Contemporary key or decipherment (key or decipherment used)

At a glanceKey from adjacent plaintext · partial (86% of the cipher)

The letter
A letter in Spanish of 12 August 1646, dated “Del Campo a Ilenstatt” (probably Ilbenstadt in the Wetterau), from an officer who signs “Joh: Behr [?] von …” to Ottavio Piccolomini. Fifteen lines of two-figure groups (216 groups, 42 cipher words) stand between plain-script passages.
Where
State Regional Archive Zamrsk (SOA Zámrsk), Rodinný archiv Piccolominů (Náchod), inv. no. 25071, in the photographed microfilm of the appendix to Vlnas 2017. Catalogue entry 2356 gave it as “Del Campo a Franckental”; the date line reads Ilenstatt.
The cipher
A homophonic substitution in two-figure groups, two to four groups for most letters, in alphabetical runs, with two code groups for a prince and an archduke. A second, earlier table is on two other letters of 1646 (inv. 25063, 25065).
How it was read
The key was rebuilt from 32 glossed words of inv. 25067, frozen, and tested on 10 glossed words of inv. 25069: 9 words letter for letter and 62 of 63 groups. The frozen key was then applied unchanged to the bare letter.
What it says
The army has no intention of seeking the enemy unless he attacks Giessen, which must be relieved; Turenne has joined the Swedes, who ordered the Prince of Darmstadt to declare himself and disarm; he refused, and the Archduke promises relief.
Still open
Three words rest on a doubtful sign or one repaired figure, two letter values (34, 56) are not glossed, the held-out test is small, and the writer and place are not settled. The transcription was not compared with the photograph at integration (the host would not serve it to a script).
Credit
Transcription, key and reading by WAINUT (a Dutch AI company) with AI language-model agents, from the photographs in Vlnas’s appendix; no human palaeographer checked the signs. The project re-ran the checks and counted the share strictly.

01 The letter

The page is one frame of a microfilm of the Piccolomini family archive, photographed and printed in the appendix of Václav Vlnas’s bachelor thesis on the computer analysis of the family’s cipher correspondence (Hradec Králové 2017), which lists the frame as not deciphered. It is rotated and soft, and clean scans would have to be ordered from the archive. The letter is in Spanish: its plain script, which the reading takes from the page for context and does not transcribe letter by letter, carries most of the words (95 against the 42 cipher words), and the cipher stands inside it for the nouns and verbs.

The date line reads “Del Campo a Ilenstatt [?] y 12 de Agosto 1646”, most probably Ilbenstadt in the Wetterau, where the notes place the imperial-Bavarian army that August; the text (Giessen, the Main, Turenne, the Prince of Darmstadt) fits the Wetterau and Upper Hesse. The writer signs in plain script “Joh: Behr [?] von …”, which is not read further here. The page keeps the slug frankenthal1646, which the catalogue’s reading of the place gave it; the notes say it may need renaming.

02 The key

Letters are written as two-figure groups in alphabetical runs (20 and 25–27 a, 28–29 b, 30 e, 31–32 f, 33–34 g, 35 h, 37–39 i, 40 m, 41–42 n, 43–44 o, 45–46 p, 47 q, 49 r, 50–51 u or v, 54 x, 56 y, 58–59 z, 60 r, 61–62 s, 63–64 t), plus a second run (10–11 c, 12–13 d, 14–15 e, 16 o, 17 u or v, 18 y, 22–23 l, 24 m). Two larger groups written apart are code groups: 67 for the Archduke and 72 for the Prince of Darmstadt, both glossed on inv. 25067. Word gaps are not marked inside a run.

No key was known. The same writer’s letters inv. 25067 and 25069 carry an interlinear decipherment of the time, and 32 glossed words and phrases of 25067 (229 signs) attest 45 of the 47 letter groups and both code groups. The key built from them (key_frozen.tsv) was frozen before the held-out pages were opened and before the bare letter was decrypted; that order rests on the contributor’s record (file times, one commit). Two letter groups are not attested by a gloss: 34 (g, from the order of the table, used once, in “Giesen”) and 56 (y, one group between two glossed words, used once, in “ny”). The key is the second table of the writer; it shares nothing with the Vlnas table of the Piccolomini letters of c. 1646, a different cipher with its own page.

03 The test

Ten glossed words of inv. 25069 (same writer, same table), transcribed group by group after the key was frozen, were decrypted with it: nine agree letter for letter with the gloss (gente, esperar, ellos, antes, no, la gente, esparcida, no, aconsexable) and the tenth, recolegida, has one group (93) that is not in the key, the other nine agreeing; 62 of the 63 groups give the gloss letter. The test is small, the gloss was visible on the crops, and the freezing before it is by the contributor’s record.

The reading was also scored with the project’s statistical check: −2.258 per letter in a Spanish 4-gram model against −4.687 on average for 200 random keys of the same structure (z 8.0), and at best −2.731 for a key annealed onto the shuffled ciphertext (z 8.8); verdict pass, on only 216 tokens and 43 types, and with a key that came from glosses, not from this text.

04 The reading

… y en fin veo que de aqui en busca del enemigo ny auenturar no ay intencion, y si no es la occasion de que el enemigo acometa a Giesen, y que lo hemos de socorer como de razon: no se deue dexar aqu(e)l [Principe de Darmstadt] cuando no fuera sino por el interes comun…

Italic type is plain script, cipher words are upright. In English: “in short I see that from here there is no intention of seeking out the enemy nor of taking a risk, unless it is the occasion that the enemy attacks Giessen, and that we have to relieve it, as is right: that Prince of Darmstadt must not be abandoned, if only for the common interest.” Later: Turenne has arrived at the Swedes’ camp, they demanded of the Prince a categorical resolution to declare himself and disarm or be attacked, as the Queen of Sweden had ordered, he answered absolutely not, he would defend himself, and the writer reports it today to the Archduke, who has promised relief in any case. The Archduke is, from the notes, Leopold Wilhelm commanding the imperial army; the history fits the summer of 1646. (That background is not from the sources and was not checked here.)

Counted by the README rule, strictly: 42 cipher words, the three places where a code group stands (67 once, 72 twice) counted as words; 36 read verbatim from the signs with a value a gloss attests, which is 85.7%. Two words more (Giesen, ny) are verbatim from the signs but rest on a letter value that no gloss attests; two have a doubtful sign (aquel, a figure under an ink blot; desarmarse, a group that could be 61 or 51); two carry a marked repair (cath{+e}gorica, one letter added; o{u/y} for oy, a figure read 56 or 50). The contributor counted 38 of 42 (90.5%), which includes the first two. No word is a guess or a hole, and it is under the 95% bar either way, so the letter is read in part. The project’s sentence checker gives 0.688 (11 of 16 sentences clean); its misses are period spellings, and a reader of the Spanish found all 16 sentences to hold (grade B).

05 What remains uncertain

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.

inv. 25071, camp at Ilenstatt [?], 12 August 1646 read in part

The army has no intention of seeking out the enemy or risking battle unless the enemy attacks Giessen, which would have to be relieved: the Prince of Darmstadt must not be abandoned, if only for the common interest. Turenne has joined the Swedes, who on Queen Christina's orders demanded that the Prince declare himself and disarm or be attacked; he refused and said he would defend himself. The writer reports this today to the Archduke, who has promised to relieve the Prince in any case.

Builds coherent sentences, but under the read bar of 95% of words read as sense (86% here); the holes are marked in the reading.

Transcription

transcription_25071.txt

# 25071, reconciled transcription (tokens as in SIGN_CONVENTIONS.md). Source image: Vlnas 2017, appendix zip
# P_lohy_A_a_B.zip (theses.cz/id/p3p2kb), frame 25071.jpg. Dated in plain script "Del Campo a Ilenstatt [?] y 12 de
# Agosto 1646"; signed in plain script "Joh: Behr [?] von ..." (not read).
# Disagreements pass1/pass2 settled on the image:
#  L05: the figure after "3" in the fifth word is under an ink blot; only its "3" is clear -> 3? (doubtful shape).
#  L09: pass 1 read 21 digits ("... 33 47 34 93 71 02 5"); at 3.4x the "7" is the cross-bar of a 4, and the run is
#       20 digits: 10 27 63 35 33 43 49 37 10 25.
#  L09: last word, third group: pass 1 51, pass 2 61; at 3.4x the figure has the closed loop and ascender of a 6 -> 61.
#       Independent blind review (12 Nov 2026): the first figure is a loop with a faint ascender, crossed by a stroke
#       from the line above: 6, 3 or 5; the image does not settle it -> 61? (doubtful shape). Pass 2 was made after
#       the key was frozen, and this is the one pass-2 change that depends on the key (51 u gives "deuarmarse").
#  L12: last group: pass 1 26, pass 2 20 (2 + a round loop, no clear ascender). Both are a in the key; 26/20 kept.
#  L13: group after 43: pass 1 50, pass 2 50 or 56 (the second figure is a small loop; the ascender of a 6 is not
#       certain) -> 50/56, first reading kept for the mechanical decryption.
#  L02: in the last run "38 44 41" a stroke crosses the second 4; read as written (44 41), no figure added or dropped.
# The plain script in <...> is a reading of the clear text around the cipher for context, not a letter-by-letter
# transcription.
L01: <... y en fin veo que de aqui> 30 42 | 28 50 61 10 27 | 12 15 22 14 41 30 24 37 33 16 | 42 56
L02: 20 17 15 41 63 17 49 27 60 | 41 43 | 25 18 | 39 42 64 30 42 10 38 44 41 <y sino>
L03: <es la> 43 10 11 27 61 37 16 42 <de que> 14 22 | 30 42 15 24 37 33 16 <acometa a>
L04: 34 39 15 61 30 42 <y que lo nemos de> 62 44 10 43 49 15 60 <como de razon>
L05: 41 43 | 62 15 | 12 14 50 30 | 13 14 54 26 49 | 25 47 50 30? 22 | 72 <Cuando no>
L06: <fuera sino por el> 37 41 63 15 49 30 62 | 10 43 24 17 41 | 41 16 | 10 60 15 44
L07: <que le> 28 50 61 11 27 60 30 24 16 62 | 25 10 27 <del Meno. El de>
L08: <Turena ha llegado antier al campo de Suedeses y con esto pidieron al> 72
L09: <resolucion> 10 27 63 35 33 43 49 37 10 25 <de declarar y> 12 15 61? 27 49 24 =
L10: 26 60 61 30 <o bien que le> 25 10 43 24 15 64 15 60 38 26 42 <segun la>
L11: <orden que dello tenian de la Reyna de Suecia. Respondioles> 27 28 61 43 22 =
L12: 50 63 26 40 15 41 63 14 | 47 50 15 | 41 43 | 23 16 | 35 26 49 37 26/20 <y que se>
L13: 12 15 31 14 41 13 14 60 37 26 <, Todo lo qual aviso> 43 50/56 <a> 67 <El qual>
L14: <le ha assegurado el> 61 43 10 16 49 15 60 22 15 <de qualquiera> 24 27 41 30 60 =
L15: 26 <. y segun esto havremos> 12 15 25 33 51 27 49 13 26 60 <los effetos ...>
Decryption

decryption_25071.txt

L01: <... y en fin veo que de aqui> en busca delenemigo ny
L02: auenturar no ay intencion <y sino>
L03: <es la> occasion <de que> el enemigo <acometa a>
L04: giesen <y que lo nemos de> socorer <como de razon>
L05: no se deue dexar aqu(e)l [Principe de Darmstadt] <Cuando no>
L06: <fuera sino por el> interes comun no creo
L07: <que le> buscaremos aca <del Meno. El de>
L08: <Turena ha llegado antier al campo de Suedeses y con esto pidieron al> [Principe de Darmstadt]
L09: <resolucion> cathgorica <de declarar y> de(s)arm=
L10: arse <o bien que le> acometerian <segun la>
L11: <orden que dello tenian de la Reyna de Suecia. Respondioles> absol=
L12: utamente que no lo haria <y que se>
L13: defenderia <, Todo lo qual aviso> ou <a> [Archiduque] <El qual>
L14: <le ha assegurado el> socorerle <de qualquiera> maner=
L15: a <. y segun esto havremos> deaguardar <los effetos ...>
Reading

reading_25071.md

# Reading of inv. 25071 (Spanish officer to Ottavio Piccolomini, "Del Campo a Ilenstatt [?]", 12 August 1646)

Status: **read in part** (36 of 42 cipher words = 85.7% by the strict count of the integration check; the contributor's
count was 38 of 42 = 90.5%, which also counts Giesen and ny, whose letter values no gloss attests; two words with a doubtful sign (one under an ink blot, one of doubtful shape), two
with a marked repair; no guesses, no holes; see NOTES.md).

Image: Vlnas 2017, appendix zip P_lohy_A_a_B.zip (theses.cz/id/p3p2kb), frame 25071.jpg. Dated in plain script
"Del Campo a Ilenstatt [?] y 12 de Agosto 1646". Key: `key_frozen.tsv`. Mechanical decryption: `decryption_25071.txt`.

## Marked text (line by line against the signs)

Marks: `{x/y}` the signs give x, read y; `{+a}` letter added; `{?x}` doubtful sign shape; `[Name]` code group.
Plain script in `<...>`. The writer's own spellings (socorer, socorerle, ny, cathgorica) are kept where the signs give
them; only cathgorica gets a marked letter, because the sense needs it.

```marked
L01: <... y en fin veo que de aqui> en busca del enemigo ny
L02: auenturar no ay intencion <y sino>
L03: <es la> occasion <de que> el enemigo <acometa a>
L04: Giesen <y que lo nemos de> socorer <como de razon>
L05: no se deue dexar aqu{?e}l [Principe de Darmstadt] <Cuando no>
L06: <fuera sino por el> interes comun, no, creo
L07: <que le> buscaremos aca <del Meno. El de>
L08: <Turena ha llegado antier al campo de Suedeses y con esto pidieron al> [Principe de Darmstadt]
L09: <resolucion> cath{+e}gorica <de declarar y> de{?s}arm-
L10: arse <o bien que le> acometerian <segun la>
L11: <orden que dello tenian de la Reyna de Suecia. Respondioles> absol-
L12: utamente que no lo haria <y que se>
L13: defenderia <, Todo lo qual aviso> o{u/y} <a> [Archiduque] <El qual>
L14: <le ha assegurado el> socorerle <de qualquiera> maner-
L15: a <. y segun esto havremos> de aguardar <los effetos ...>
```

Notes on the marks: L05 the fourth group of "aquel" is under an ink blot; only its "3" is clear (30 = e is what
the word needs). L09 "desarmarse": the third group is read 61 (s), but its first figure
is a loop with a faint ascender, crossed by a stroke from the line above, and could be 6, 3 or 5 (independent blind
review, 12 Nov 2026); with 51 (u) the word would read "deuarmarse", so it is marked as a doubtful sign. L09 "cathgorica": the signs give no e between h and g; read "cathegorica" (categorica) with one
added letter. L13 the second group after "aviso" reads 50 (u) or 56 (y); "oy" (today) is what the sentence needs,
so it is read 56 with a marked repair. L04 "Giesen" uses the group 34, which is not glossed in the sibling letters;
its value g comes from the order of the table (33 g, 35 h) and from the sense (the town of Giessen, held for
Hesse-Darmstadt). It is counted as verbatim but is listed under the remaining gaps.

## Spanish (cipher in normal type, plain script in italics)

*Espero que V.E. havra visto por mis antecedentes lo que por aca se offrece y la resolucion que tiene de S.A. sobre lo
que se me havia encargado. En estos terminos estamos aun aora, por mas que se apriete, y en fin veo que de aqui* en
busca del enemigo ni aventurar no ay intencion, *y si no es la* occasion *de que* el enemigo *acometa a* Giesen, *y
que lo hemos de* socorrer *como de razon:* no se deve dexar aquel Principe de Darmstadt, *cuando no fuera sino por
el* interes comun. No creo *que le* buscaremos aca *del Meno. El de Turena ha llegado antier al campo de Suedeses, y
con esto pidieron al* Principe de Darmstadt *resolucion* cathegorica *de declarar y* desarmarse, *o bien que le*
acometerian, *segun la orden que dello tenian de la Reyna de Suecia. Respondioles* absolutamente que no lo haria, *y
que se* defenderia. *Todo lo qual aviso* oy *al* Archiduque. *El qual le ha assegurado el* socorrerle *de qualquiera*
manera, *y segun esto havremos* de aguardar *los effetos, de que avisare a V.E. ...*

The plain-script passages are a reading of the clear text around the cipher, given for context; they were not
transcribed letter by letter. "Del Campo a Ilenstatt" is read from the date line; the place is probably Ilbenstadt
in the Wetterau, not Frankenthal (see NOTES.md).

English: `translation_25071.md`.

## Summary and context

A field report of 12 August 1646 from the imperial-Bavarian camp in the Wetterau. The Swedes (Wrangel) have been
joined by Turenne; they have summoned the Prince of Darmstadt (the house of Hesse-Darmstadt, ally of the Emperor) to
declare himself and disarm, or be attacked, on the Queen of Sweden's orders. He refused and said he would defend
himself. The writer reports that the army has no intention of seeking out the enemy or risking battle, unless the
enemy attacks Giessen, which would have to be relieved: the Prince must not be abandoned, if only for the common
interest. The Archduke (Leopold Wilhelm) has promised to relieve him in any case. Code groups: 72 = Principe de
Darmstadt, 67 = Archiduque (both glossed on inv. 25067).
Translation

translation_25071.md

# Translation of inv. 25071 (to Ottavio Piccolomini, camp at Ilenstatt [?], 12 August 1646)

English of `reading_25071.md`. Cipher passages in normal type, plain-script passages in italics. The marked places
of the reading are kept: "that" in "that Prince of Darmstadt" rests on a sign under an ink blot; "categorical" has
one added letter; "disarm" rests on one group of doubtful shape (61 s, possibly 51 u); "today" rests on one figure
read 56 (y) where it could be 50 (u).

*I hope Your Excellency will have seen from my earlier letters what is happening here, and the resolution His
Highness has taken on what I had been charged with. We are still on the same terms now, however hard one presses;
in short, I see that from here* there is no intention of seeking out the enemy, nor of taking a risk, *unless it is*
the occasion *that* the enemy *attacks* Giessen, *and that we have* to relieve it, *as is right:* that Prince of
Darmstadt must not be abandoned, *if only for the* common interest. I do not believe *that we will* seek the enemy *on
this side of the Main. The Vicomte de Turenne arrived the day before yesterday at the Swedes' camp, and with this
they demanded of the* Prince of Darmstadt *a* categorical *resolution to declare himself and* disarm, *or else that
they* would attack *him, according to the order they had for it from the Queen of Sweden. He answered them that*
he would absolutely not do it, *and that he* would defend himself. *All of which I report* today *to the*
Archduke, *who has assured him of* relieving him *in* any way; *and accordingly we shall have* to wait for *the
outcome, of which I shall inform Your Excellency ...*

Notes: "the Prince of Darmstadt" is code group 72 and "the Archduke" code group 67, both glossed on inv. 25067
(Archduke Leopold Wilhelm commanded the imperial army in 1646). The plain-script passages are read for context only.

Key: key_frozen.tsv

06 Sources

The key, the transcriptions, the readings and the checks are in targets/frankenthal1646.

Cite this page

WAINUT and Daniel Bourdeau, “A Spanish officer to Ottavio Piccolomini, camp in the Wetterau, 12 August 1646”, Cyphersolver, posted 12 November 2026, https://cyphersolver.com/frankenthal1646.html.