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.
Portugais 33 — Letter of20April1667
Contents: Secret negotiations with the Samorim over pepper, with instructions to avoid giving offence to the Dutch.
Transcribed; Deciphered
- Ciphertext-only:
- No
- Sender:
- King of Portugal (Eu El Rey)
- Recipient:
- The Conde, Viceroy of India
- Year:
- 20April1667
- Key:
- 33 letter forms; one complete cipher passage.
- Ciphertext:
- 257 elements with readings; 6 readings marked ?
- Plaintext in another folio of the same volume:
- Separate historical decipherment on f60r/PDF127 and copied text on f119r/PDF245. Names and date variants remain distinct from original f59r.
Excerpt and Translation
f59r, cipher lines9–15
Excerpt
prudencia. Com tudo me pareceo lembrarvos que com aquelle rei se deve trata[r] com todo o segredo por que os Olandezes se nam dem por ofendidos.
Translation
…prudence. Nevertheless, it seemed right to remind you that dealings with that king must be conducted with complete secrecy so that the Dutch do not take offence.
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.
Portugais 33
f59r
Conde Amigo. Eu El Rey vos envio muito saudar como aquelle que amo. O VizoRey Antonio de Mello de Castro por carta de 30 de Dezembro que me chegou por terra me deu conta do que os Olandezes neste estado obram contra as pazes que com elles celebrei. Disto mando tratar em Holanda, e Dom Francisco de Mello, que nomeei Embaixador para ajustar as restituições de Cochim e Cananor.
Escreve tambem Antonio de Melo que determinava tra[t]ar com o Samorim sobre dar pimenta como o mesmo Samorim dezeiava e ainda que conheço que neste negocio uzareis de toda a prudencia com tudo me pareceo lembrarvos que com aquelle rei se deve trata[r] com todo o segredo por que os Olandezes se nam dem por ofendidos, e com toda a suavidade a respeito da inimizade que sempre teve com os Portuguezes e dos enganos que [?]
Escripta em Lisboa a 20 de Abril de 1667.
Rey
[?]
Ao Conde de S. Vicente
At a glanceExisting decipherment · complete
- The letter
- The King of Portugal to the Conde, Viceroy of India, 20 April 1667, in Portuguese.
- Where
- BnF Portugais 33, f. 59r; the cipher passage has 257 elements with readings.
- The cipher
- A simple numeric and letter substitution with 33 letter forms.
- How it was read
- From a historical decipherment on f. 60r with a copy on f. 119r, as George Lasry gives it. This project decoded two rows from his f. 59r crop with his table and they matched.
- What it says
- The King reminds the Viceroy that dealings with that king must be kept secret so that the Dutch do not take offence.
- Still open
- 6 readings are marked uncertain. The folio was not checked against Gallica.
- Credit
- George Lasry, BnF cipher research, 10 October 2026.
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: none (no Gallica link; Portugais 33 ark not resolvable offline)
- Folio matches the report: unclear; cipher present: yes
- What we checked: decoded from his f59r crop with his table: 70.f.x.40.50.26.82.35.ss.82.29.20.700.x.40.29.20.50 = p-r-u-d-e-n-c-i-a c-o-m t-u-d-o m-e; next row 70.ss.500.50.g.50.29.202.50.20.24.500.ss.f.x.29.62.28 = pareceo lembrarvos q = his excerpt
- Verdict: confirmed (method read from existing decipherment, extent complete). The check is a sample, not a re-solution.
- Notes: Sample decodes exactly, but folio not checked on Gallica. A historical decipherment exists on f60r and a copy on f119r, so the reading rests on it. Simple numeric/letter substitution.
02 Other contributions
- Plaintext in another folio of the same volume
- Separate historical decipherment on f60r/PDF127 and copied text on f119r/PDF245. Names and date variants remain distinct from original f59r.
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 decipherment (report PDF, 24 Oct 2026)
Secret negotiations with the Samorim over pepper, with instructions to avoid giving offence to the Dutch.
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. 112; his other items are listed on his contributor card.
- The working folder:
targets/portugal1667/(his entry as extracted from the report, our spot-check,profile.json).