Alchymey teuczsch: the ciphers of an alchemists’ notebook, 1426

01 The book

A small paper book, 22.5 by 15.5 cm, written in several Bavarian hands and dated on f. 9r: Das puch ist angehaben ym [tauro] xiiii und xxvj, begun with the sun in Taurus, 1426. Most of the recipes are headed with the name of Niklas Jankowitz. Other names are Michael von Pirpach, over a list of lucky and unlucky days, and Michel Wulfing, over a fever charm. A note on f. 94r records that on the Saturday of Easter week [14]23 “we” gave “our multiplication” to one Frydryce to work, weighed at four pounds less two lot. An address formula to Leonhard, bishop of Passau from 1424, places the circle. The book is sewn into an unexecuted 1413 charter of the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg, counts of Hals, taking the Jew Salman Teublin into their service and binding him to teach them three of his best arts.

The cipher protects a working notebook. Recipes are in clear German, and the substance names, quantities and some whole sentences are in signs. A survey of all 85 images, covers included, finds cipher on f. 1r, ff. 5v–7r, 9r–15v, 20r–22r, 44v, 46r–v, 54r–61r, 79ar, 91v and 93r.

The signs belong to three independent alphabets, and each has its own result below: key A and key B were deciphered by Wattenbach in 1869 and their alphabets are recovered here against his plaintexts (key A only in part, since the recipe cipher has not been transcribed); set C was not given by Wattenbach, and its values come from the 2014 catalogue’s reading of f. 93r, with f. 44v and the glossary still unread.

02 The crossed-out alphabet on f. 1r

Wattenbach deciphered the leaf in 1869: Das ist ein abc vnd das haben wir selbs neus gemacht, abcdefghiklmnopqrſstuwschch vnd ich hab es darum gar an ein ander gesetzt das man nicht sul versten das es ein alfabet sei — “This is an ABC that we made ourselves, new, and I have set it all together so that no one should understand that it is an alphabet.” The alphabet is written without a break, and the whole leaf is struck through. Wattenbach thought the strike was there because the key was too easy to guess; it is still legible.

With the strike line removed from the image, the run gives twenty-four signs in the order of the alphabet the text names:

The signs are rendered with the nearest typographic shape. Two checks in running text:

• Line 3 continues after the clear vnd ich with ˥ ▪ o ⊡ ●, which is hab es, as Wattenbach printed.
• The recipe heading on f. 11r is ϙ : ɓ 4 ▪ ● · Y ▪ ϙ ɓ ? : 2, niklas gank?icz, with one sign unresolved. A modern reader had already pencilled “= Niklas Gankwiz” beside it.

The first eleven values, a to l, are clear on the image, and a, b, c, e, g, h, i, k, l and s are checked in running text. The last thirteen are inferred from the shape of the signs under the heaviest part of the strike, and only a few of them have been met in running text; they are grade C.

03 The second alphabet: the invocation on f. 6v

Wattenbach printed f. 6v with its plaintext: In dem namen des faters vnd des suns vnd des heiligen geistes so fach ich schuldiger man dises buch an, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost I, a guilty man, begin this book.” Segmenting the three lines and laying them against the text gives nineteen values: : i, a hooked Y n, 3 d, a trefoil on a stem e, Ω with an inner triangle m, a stroke a, a tall stroke medial s, a blob final s, a ring with a tail f, a T with a wavy top r, a ring with a dot h, T l, a looped stem g, two loops on a stem t, a ring with a 3-tail sch, an 8 with an inner loop b, a c joined to a 2 for ch, 9 o, and a cup with a 3 for the u of vnd. Every word of the prayer decrypts with them.

The same set is written out in alphabetical order on f. 91v and crossed out, like the first. Wattenbach did not reproduce that leaf, and the catalogue notes it only as an alphabet.

04 The third set: boxes, stars and T

Wattenbach wrote that f. 1r uses “two different systems”. Lines 1–2 of that leaf are in a third set built from boxes with and without dots, stars and T-shapes, which also carries the preface and glossary on ff. 5v–6r and the notes on ff. 44v and 93r. Two printed plaintexts fix part of it:

• f. 1r line 1, Das ist ein abc: Das [✱ 中 ⊡̈] [⊡ ✱ T] [▪ o 2].
• f. 93r, given in the 2014 catalogue as Nota wir haben versucht das [in dem caichen] der [iuncfrawn], “we have tried it in the sign of the Virgin”: [✱ T] [∴ ⊡ ■] [2 ▪ ✱ 2 ⊏ ⊡ T].

Together they give ▪ a, o b, 2 c, ∴ d, ⊡ e, ⊏ h, ✱ i, T n, a filled box m, a box on a stem s and a box with two dots t. The a, b, c, d and e are the signs of the f. 1r alphabet. The i and n are not, and T, which is w in the f. 1r alphabet, is n here. The s and t rest on one word each. The glossary on f. 6r uses further dotted-box variants and has not been deciphered.

05 The recipes and the glossary

The glossary on f. 5v was printed by Wattenbach in its resolved form: aqua fortis is called “the sharp water”, sal ammoniac “sal”, its oil “Nyczadar”, common salt “sal aller”, gold “the yellow earth”, silver “the white earth”, green oil “vitriol”. The cover-names were meant to spare the writers from enciphering every substance, and the recipes still mix them with signs.

In the recipes (ff. 7r–22r, 46r–v, 54r–61r), the signs are mostly those of the f. 1r alphabet, as the name on f. 11r shows, with admixtures from the others; Bischoff noted that the sets are also used mixed. The runs are short, from one to a few words, and recur: the most frequent group appears about a dozen times on ff. 10v–15r. f. 79ar holds a struck table of sign groups, each over a pair of signs, which looks like a list of substances with their symbols.

06 Why it was looked at

The project’s oldest deciphered cipher is from 1497, and a list of earlier candidates was drawn up to try to beat it. This book was on it at 1426 for three reasons: DECODE lists it with no decipherment, with 85 images; the Handschriftencensus entry cites Bischoff for “S. 12 (Nr. 70–71)”, which was taken to mean cipher on ff. 70–71; and the key was said to be on f. 1r. The first check on any target is for a prior decipherment. Wattenbach’s 1869 note, with its facsimiles of f. 1r, f. 5v and f. 6v and their plaintexts, settles it. The book is ruled out as a record candidate.

07 What remains open

• A continuous transcription of the enciphered recipe passages, f. 9r lines 7–12, the f. 6r glossary and f. 44v. Eis printed extracts only.
• The last thirteen signs of the f. 1r alphabet (m to ch), grade C until they are met in running text.
• One sign of the name on f. 11r (o or w).
• The third set beyond the eleven letters fixed above, and the table on f. 79ar.

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.

Cod. Pal. germ. 597, Alchymey teuczsch (1426) read in part

An East Bavarian alchemical and medical recipe book dated 1426 (recipes mostly headed Niklas Jankowitz), whose compiler hid the opening lines, an invocation, substance names and notes in three home-made sign alphabets; Wattenbach broke them in 1869 (f. 1r: 'this is an abc we made new ourselves ... so that no one should understand it is an alphabet').

Builds coherent sentences, but under the read bar of 95% of words read as sense (98% here); the holes are marked in the reading.

# Cod. Pal. germ. 597: the cipher runs transcribed sign by sign (copied from NOTES.md)

Copied verbatim from NOTES.md. No continuous transcription of the cipher was made: only the alphabets (f. 1r key A,
f. 6v key B, f. 91v; in `key.md`) and these check words. The recipe cipher (ff. 7r–22r, 46r–v, 54r–61r), f. 9r
ll. 7–12, the f. 6r glossary and f. 44v are not transcribed.

- f. 1r line 1 (set C), Wattenbach's *Das ist ein abc*: Das [✱ 中 ⊡̈] [⊡ ✱ T] [▪ o 2]
- f. 1r lines 3–4 (key A): the alphabet, one unbroken run of 24 signs, heavily struck (table in `key.md`)
- f. 1r line 2 (key A), after the clear *vnd ich*: ˥ ▪ o ⊡ ● = **hab es**
- f. 11r line 4 (and 10v heading), key A: ϙ : ɓ 4 ▪ ● | Y ▪ ϙ ɓ ⊚ : 2 = **niklas gank?icz** (⊚ unread, o or w)
- f. 6v (key B): aligned glyph by glyph with Wattenbach's plaintext (sign values in `key.md`; glyph boxes from `seg.py`)
- f. 93r (set C): aligned with the catalogue's reading (sign values in `key.md`)

# Cod. Pal. germ. 597: the deciphered passages (copied from NOTES.md)

Copied verbatim from NOTES.md. The plaintexts are Wattenbach's (1869) for f. 1r and f. 6v, the 2014 Heidelberg
catalogue's (Kalning, Miller, Zimmermann, pp. 257–260) for f. 93r, and this project's for the check words. Wattenbach's
plaintext of f. 5v is not copied into the repository (his OCR is a git-ignored local file).

- f. 1r (Wattenbach): *Das ist ein abc vnd das haben wir selbs neus gemacht / abcdefghiklmnopqrſstuwschch vnd ich /
  hab es darum gar an ein ander gesetzt das man / nicht sul versten das es ein alfabet sei.*
- f. 6v (Wattenbach): *In dem namen des faters vnd des suns vnd des heiligen geistes so fach ich schuldiger man dises buch an.*
- f. 93r (catalogue 2014): *Nota wir haben versucht das [in dem caichen] der [iuncfrawn]*
- f. 11r line 4 and the 10v heading (here, key A): **niklas gank?icz** (a modern pencil gloss on 11r reads "= Niklas Gankwiz")

Unread: the recipe cipher (substance names and quantities inline in the German recipes, ff. 7r–22r, 46r–v,
54r–61r), f. 9r lines 7–12, the f. 6r glossary of cover-names and the two notes of f. 44v.

Decryption: cpg597

# Cod. Pal. germ. 597: the deciphered passages: English translation

Translation (Claude Opus 5.5, 23 Oct 2026) of `texts/cpg597_decryption.md`, **excerpts only**: the passages whose
plaintext the repository holds (Wattenbach 1869 for f. 1r and f. 6v; the 2014 Heidelberg catalogue for f. 93r; this
project's check words). Wattenbach's plaintext of f. 5v is not in the repository; the recipe cipher, f. 9r ll. 7-12,
the f. 6r glossary and f. 44v are unread. Words in [brackets] are as the catalogue brackets them. Early New High
German.

## Translation

- f. 1r (Wattenbach): *This is an ABC, and we have made it new ourselves / abcdefghiklmnopqrſstuwschch and I / have
  therefore set it all one after another, so that one should not understand that it is an alphabet.*
- f. 6v (Wattenbach): *In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, I, a guilty man, thus begin
  this book.*
- f. 93r (catalogue 2014): *Note: we have tried that [in the sign] of the [Virgin]*
- f. 11r line 4 and the 10v heading (key A): **niklas gank?icz** (a name; a modern pencil gloss on 11r reads
  "= Niklas Gankwiz")

Key: key.md

08 Sources

• Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Pal. germ. 597, digital facsimile (Public Domain Mark). DECODE record R2876.
• Wilhelm Wattenbach, “Alchymey teuczsch”, Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit NF 16 (1869), cols. 264–268, with facsimiles of f. 1r, f. 5v and f. 6v. Internet Archive.
• Bernhard Bischoff, “Übersicht über die nichtdiplomatischen Geheimschriften des Mittelalters”, MIÖG 62 (1954), pp. 1–27, items 70–71. MGH library PDF.
• Gerhard Eis, “Alchymey teuczsch”, Ostbairische Grenzmarken 1 (1957), pp. 11–16; reprinted in Medizinische Fachprosa des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit (Amsterdam, 1982), pp. 307–315.
• Pamela Kalning, Matthias Miller and Karin Zimmermann, Die Codices Palatini germanici in der Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg (Cod. Pal. germ. 496–670) (Wiesbaden, 2014), pp. 257–260. Digitised.
• Handschriftencensus 10300.

Notes, key tables and the segmentation scripts are in the repository (targets/heidelberg597/); the page images are not committed. The decipherments of f. 1r, f. 5v and f. 6v are Wattenbach’s, and that of f. 93r the Heidelberg catalogue’s. The recovery of the values of the signs from the images is this project’s.