Partyet, Cadiz (1721) — Read with known key

At a glanceKnown key applied · complete

The letter: Pierre-Nicolas Partyet, French consul at Cadiz, to the Conseil de Marine, 7 April 1721. It reports a quarrel between the captain general of the sea, the intendant and the commander of the marine guards.
Where: Archives nationales, AE/B/I/226, fols. 92v–93. The inventory (FRAN_IR_053989) marks the passage “[suite en chiffre, non transcrite]”. Catalogue item 541.
The cipher: The Cadiz consulate’s numerical table, 1 to 465 in alphabetical order, with syllables first and then words for each initial. Code words are underlined in the dispatch.
How it was deciphered: The table was rebuilt only from the interlinear decipherments of five neighbouring Partyet letters, frozen, and checked on held-out glossed letters of January and February 1721: about 235 numbers covered and no disagreement.
What it says: “On dit que ce dernier n’agit pas comme il le devroit pour le bien du service”: someone is said not to act as he should for the good of the service, and this is to be decided shortly, both sides having written to Madrid.
Still open: Two endings are lost in the binding (dernie[r], déci[dé]), and it is not settled whom “the latter” names. The images were not seen here.
Credit: Brice Dudout rebuilt the table, read the passage and ran the checks, working with Claude Opus 5.5 agents.

01 The letter

Partyet writes from Cadiz about the quarrel between the captain general of the sea, Pedro de los Ríos, the intendant Patiño and Dormay, commander of the marine guards. When he comes to judge them, he switches to cipher. The register holds no decipherment of these six lines, and the Archives nationales inventory still marks them “not transcribed”, although the neighbouring letters carry the Council’s own decipherment between the lines.

02 The table

The consulate’s cipher of about 1719–1722 is a numerical table in alphabetical order: 140 da, 141 de, 142 di, 143 do, 144 du, 145 dont, 146 dans, and so on. Several numbers stand for the same letter or syllable, and code words are underlined. The table was rebuilt from the clerks’ interlinear decipherments of five Partyet letters (31 March and 4, 11, 12 and 19 May 1721, fols. 86–118v) and frozen before it was tested. Its values were then checked on held-out glossed letters of 6 and 27 January and 23 February 1721, about 280 numbers, with the contemporary decipherment compared number by number. The caveat is that the gloss sits on the same image as the numbers, so the transcription was not fully blind.

One group, 392, is underlined and absent from every glossed letter of 1717–1722. It was first restored as service from the phrase “pour le bien du s…” and its place among the s words. It has since been found in three glossed letters of the same table, including the identical sequence “pour le bien du service” in a letter of 7 June 1725.

We checked here on 2 November 2026 that the table and the decryption file agree; 35 of 38 numbers match their value in the line, and the exceptions are the marked alternates s/se and ci/cy and one number missing from the table.

03 The reading

The six cipher lines read: “On dit que ce dernier n’agit pas comme il le devroit pour le bien du service; c’est ce qui sera décidé incessamment, les uns et les autres ayant écrit amplement à Madrid sur le tout.”

Who is “the latter”? Grammatically the last named is the captain general, but the reproach may be aimed at Dormay, who has just been mentioned. The cipher does not settle it.

04 What remains uncertain

Of 35 words, 33 are certain and two are probable: dernie[r], whose last number is lost in the binding, and déci[dé], cut at the edge of the binding.
Group 392 (service) is now attested in three other glossed letters.
The transcription was made by AI from the Archives nationales images and was not checked by a person against them 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.

Partyet to the Conseil de Marine, Cadiz, 7 April 1721 (cipher passage)

It is said that the latter does not act as he should for the good of the service; to be decided shortly, both sides having written to Madrid.

Transcription

transcription.txt

# Archives nationales (Pierrefitte), AE/B/I/226 ("Correspondance des consuls de France à Cadix, 1721"), fols. 92v-93,
# image AE-B-I-226_097 of the AN virtual inventory room (SIV), inventory FRAN_IR_053989. Image not included (reuse licence not checked).
# Groups separated by dots as written; _x_ = underlined in the original (code words); ? = digit lost in the binding.
# The cipher passage follows "... il n'est point à ceux de ce général" and precedes "Cependant M. Dormay part demain ...".

fol. 92v, l. 1	329.142.44.461.95.141.42.307.8.4?
fol. 92v, l. 2	305.212.44.340.43 _106_ 259.261.141.11.373.9.44
fol. 92v, l. 3	347.261._80_.144._392_ 25.162.95.462.386.370.141.96 (+? in the binding)
fol. 93, l. 1	9.38.95.43.385._285_.261.43.11.38.43.49.261.43.50
fol. 93, l. 2	44.371.43.7.240.38.44.8.25.372.44.7.37.40.261
fol. 93, l. 3	285.7.280.30.372.30.389.42.261.415.11.44

Decryption

decryption.txt

# Group-by-group decryption with the frozen table key_v1.tsv (+ values attested after the freeze in held-out glossed letters).
# {x} probable; [x] code word or value given by the sense.

## fol. 92v, l. 1
329.142.44.461.95.141.42.307.8.4?
on di t que ce de r ni e {r}
= on dit que ce dernie{r}

## fol. 92v, l. 2
305.212.44.340.43 _106_ 259.261.141.11.373.9.44
na gi t pa s [comme] il le de u r oi t
= n’agit pas comme il le devroit

## fol. 92v, l. 3
347.261._80_.144._392_ 25.162.95.462.386.370.141.96 (+? in the binding)
pour le [bien] du [service] c est ce qui se ra de ci {dé}
= pour le bien du service ; c’est ce qui sera déci{dé}

## fol. 93, l. 1
9.38.95.43.385._285_.261.43.11.38.43.49.261.43.50
i n ce s sa [ment] le s u n s et le s au
= incessamment, les uns et les au-

## fol. 93, l. 2
44.371.43.7.240.38.44.8.25.372.44.7.37.40.261
t re s a y n t é c ri t a m p le
= -tres ayant écrit ample-

## fol. 93, l. 3
285.7.280.30.372.30.389.42.261.415.11.44
ment a ma d ri d su r le to u t
= -ment à Madrid sur le tout.

Reading

reading.md

# Established text (French; the cipher passage in the middle, the clear text of the dispatch around it in <>)

‹clear: D. Pedro de los Ríos, capitaine général de la mer, prétend avoir des raisons de se plaindre de la plupart des supérieurs de ce pays-ci ; il a surtout des contestations tant avec M. Patiño sur différents articles qu’avec M. Dormay, commandant la compagnie des gardes de la marine, lequel de son côté prétend que, suivant les ordres du Roi Catholique, il n’est point à ceux de ce général.› On dit que ce dernie{r} n’agit pas comme il le devroit pour le bien du service ; c’est ce qui sera déci{dé} incessamment, les uns et les autres ayant écrit amplement à Madrid sur le tout. ‹clear: Cependant M. Dormay part demain pour aller servir son quartier de sous-lieutenant des gardes du corps, et il se propose de joindre la cour à Aranjuez, où elle sera lors de son arrivée.›

## State of the reading

First published decipherment, to our knowledge. 77 cipher numbers, 35 words. Published under Daniel Bourdeau’s rule: 95% of the words read in their sense. Here: 35 of 35 words read in their sense (100%), of which 33 certain (94%) and 2 probable: dernie{r} and déci{dé}, whose endings are lost in the binding (see the notes). The code word 392 = “service” is attested by three contemporary decipherments in the same table (1725, 1730). No word unresolved.

Translation

translation.md

# English translation

[Don Pedro de los Ríos, captain general of the sea, claims to have reasons to complain of most of the authorities here; above all he is in dispute with M. Patiño on several points, and with M. Dormay, commander of the company of the marine guards, who for his part maintains that, according to the orders of the Catholic King, he is not under the orders of this general.] It is said that the latter does not act as he should for the good of the service; this will be decided shortly, both sides having written at length to Madrid on the whole matter. [Meanwhile M. Dormay leaves tomorrow to serve his quarter as sub-lieutenant of the Life Guards, and intends to join the court at Aranjuez, where it will be when he arrives.]

Key: key.tsv

05 Sources

Archives nationales, AE/B/I/226, fols. 92v–93, image 097 of the virtual inventory room (not reproduced).
Brice Dudout, Europe chiffrée, Partyet 1721.

Working files: targets/partyet1721/ in the repository.

Partyet to the Conseil de Marine, 1721