George Lasry’s decipherment
George Lasry’s report on this item, as he sent it on 24 October 2026 (PDF), in its own order and wording. The decipherment, the translation and the reconstruction of the key are his, made with ChatGPT Astra 6 and Anthropic Opus 5.5. This project’s own checks follow under Verification.
Français 2971
Contents: A Venetian diplomatic report about the king’s letters, an affront involving Milan, and warnings of a conspiracy; its closing fragment mentions England.
Transcribed; Deciphered
- Ciphertext-only:
- No
- Sender:
- F. Le Rouge
- Recipient:
- the Chancellor
- Year:
- 11 July, year unestablished
- Key:
- 28 symbols, 22 letter signs, 2 in nomenclature, 4 unidentified
- Ciphertext:
- 623 elements, 610 identified (97.9%)
- Interlinear plaintext:
- Interlinear plaintext on the same page, f32r. ·
Excerpt and Translation
f32r, cipher lines 1–3
Excerpt
… lettres du Roy à Seigneurie n’eussent sceu arriuer à meilleur poinct, aultant qu’elle [e]stoit mal contente apres la demonstration qu’elle auoit faicte pour le roi…
Translation
… letters from the king to the Signoria could not have arrived at a better moment, given that it was displeased after the show of support it had made for the king …
Readable text
The full text, folio by folio, as in the report. Bold marks the passages deciphered from the cipher; the rest is the clear text of the letter. Question marks are the report’s: [?] or a bare ? for a sign or group left unread, a ? after a word for a doubtful reading.
Français 2971
f32r
Monseigneur, soubz la haste du courrier ne vous escripray aultre pour le present fors que me vous plaira croire ce que j'escrips au Roy ensemble en ceste [?]. Et tant prieray nostre Seigneur vous donner bonne vie et santé.
Monseigneur, je prie le Createur vous donner tres bonne vie et longue. De Venise ce xie de juillet.
[?]s lettres du Roy à Seigneurie n'eussent sceu arriuer à meilleur poinct, aultant qu'elle [e]stoit mal contente apres la demonstration qu'elle auoit faicte pour le roi, pour ce que monsieur de [t?] Barbes n'auoit [u]oulu lors recepuoir à Milan le seigneur Theodore [e]st ung de leurs [g]entilz hommes, lesquelz la dicte Seigneurie enuoioit pour conforter la uille et don[n]er reputation aus affaires du Roy. Que i estoit signe que l'on ne se fioit pas d'elle, combien qu'elle e[e?]ust decouuert la coniurat[i]on par plusieurs [e?]s lettres que elle m'a monstrees, enuoiez à Milan en estreme diligen[c]e du uingt uniesme de iuing à quinze heures, du uingt uniesme du dict mois à uingt trois heures, du uingt troisiesme, du uingt cinquiesme, du uingt s[e]i[s]ie[s]me, et du uingt septiesme aussi du dict mois.
Monseigneur, je vous supplie qu'il vous plaise quelque chose que vous m'avez [?] et que vous escripviez le xxe de decembre passé touchant la somme [?] dont je vous faisoys mention en mes lettres. Car ains le trouverez à la fin [?] si Angleterre branle.
Vostre tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur
F. Le Rouge
At a glanceKey from adjacent plaintext · partial (99% of the cipher)
- The letter
- F. Le Rouge to the Chancellor, 11 July (year unestablished), French.
- Where
- BnF Français 2971, f. 32r (Gallica view 61).
- The cipher
- 28 symbols: 22 letter signs, 2 in the nomenclature, 4 unidentified.
- How it was read
- The result is George Lasry’s, from his report. We checked one sample on the Gallica image against the interlinear plaintext and it matches.
- What it says
- Letters from the king to the Signoria could not have arrived at a better moment, since it was displeased after its show of support for the king.
- Credit
- Key and decipherment by George Lasry.
01 Verification
Spot-check against the manuscript
This result is George Lasry’s. This project did not re-solve the cipher: it checked one sample against the Gallica image and recorded what it found.
- Batch B. Image checked: https://openapi.bnf.fr/iiif/image/v3/ark:/12148/btv1b9059907g/f61/pct:0,35,100,25/2000,/0/default.jpg
- Folio matches the report: yes; cipher present: yes
- What we checked: Gallica f61 = fol. 32 (his link had no folio); interlinear over cipher lines 1-3 reads "lres du Roy a la Sgrie neussent sceu arriver a meilleur point... quelle estoit mal contente apres la demonstration" = his excerpt; symbol-by-symbol decode not done (dense small script)
- Verdict: confirmed (method key recovered based on adjacent plaintext, extent complete). The check is a sample, not a re-solution.
- Notes: Meta link points to volume, not folio; letter signed Le Rouge on f61, 11 July. 97.9% identified.
Notes and corrections
f32r is Gallica image 61; the report links the volume only.
02 Other contributions
The plaintext of the period beside the cipher, as George Lasry reports it:
- Interlinear plaintext
- Interlinear plaintext on the same page, f32r.
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.
George Lasry's reading (report status: Transcribed; Deciphered); only the excerpt from his report is in the repository read in part
A Venetian diplomatic report about the king’s letters, an affront involving Milan, and warnings of a conspiracy; its closing fragment mentions England.
Builds coherent sentences, but under the read bar of 95% of words read as sense (94% here); the holes are marked in the reading.
Decryption: in full above, in George Lasry’s decipherment (readable.md)
Reading: in full above, in George Lasry’s decipherment (readable.md)
Translation: in full above, in George Lasry’s decipherment (translation_excerpt.md)
03 Sources
- George Lasry, with ChatGPT Astra 6 and Anthropic Opus 5.5, BnF cipher research, 10 October 2026 (sent to Daniel Bourdeau on 13 October 2026 for publication here), p. 79; his other items are listed on his contributor card.
- f32r = image 61 (the report links the volume only)
- image checked in the spot-check
- The working folder:
targets/lerouge/(his entry as extracted from the report, our spot-check,profile.json).