Unsolved Catalogue · no. 2313 · class B · priority 6.9 · open

Ludwig Camerarius's letters from The Hague in his numeric code: several letters with no decipherment

Gustav Adolf's agent at The Hague in the years before the Swedish landing in Germany (1626-30), reporting on the Palatine cause, the Dutch, England and the Empire: a dated Latin code corpus with its own key material in the same volume, and some letters never deciphered on the page.

Date
1626-1630
Correspondents
Ludwig Camerarius (Palatine councillor, Swedish resident and later ambassador at The Hague) -> Gustav II Adolf, and -> Johan Skytte ("Vir amice")
Place
The Hague
Language
Latin (numeric nomenclator: 2-4 digit code groups, groups below about 100 for single letters)
Held at
Riksarkivet, Diplomatica Hollandica, SE/RA/2109/I/5/7 (Residenten, slutligen ambassadören, Ludwig Camerarius, Brev till Kungl. Maj:t 1626-1628, 1630; also letters to Johan Skytte) · 535 images (series R0003234). Bare cipher: 426 (Duplicata, 6/16 Sept 1630), 432 (Duplicata, 13/23 Sept 1630), 442 (Post script, 20/30 Sept 1630, full page), 460 (19/29 Oct 1630, both pages), postscript on 454 left. 428 is bare but duplicates the glossed 427. Glossed: 109 (4 June 1627), 427 (10/20 Sept 1630), 498; postscript of 423 partly glossed; 215 is a second system, glossed. More cipher at 73, 144, 423, 451 (not zoomed). About 70 of 535 images seen (checked 6 Nov 2026, batch n09).
Images
NAD record · IIIF manifest · image 109 · image 426 · image 427 · image 428 · image 432 · image 442 · image 460 · image 498

Hand this page to your AI agent

Give your agent (Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant that can open web pages) this address and ask it to do the task on the page:

https://cyphersolver.com/solve/2313.html

Or copy the block below into the chat. It is the whole task: what the cipher is, where the images are, what has been tried, the steps, and how to report back.

TASK: help read Unsolved Catalogue no. 2313 of the cyphersolver project
This page: https://cyphersolver.com/solve/2313.html

You are helping a public research project read historical cipher letters that nobody has read yet.

THE CIPHER
  Title:          Ludwig Camerarius's letters from The Hague in his numeric code: several letters with no decipherment
  Date:           1626-1630
  Correspondents: Ludwig Camerarius (Palatine councillor, Swedish resident and later ambassador at The Hague) -> Gustav II Adolf, and -> Johan Skytte ("Vir amice")
  Place:          The Hague
  Language:       Latin (numeric nomenclator: 2-4 digit code groups, groups below about 100 for single letters) (expected)
  Held at:        Riksarkivet, Diplomatica Hollandica, SE/RA/2109/I/5/7 (Residenten, slutligen ambassadören, Ludwig Camerarius, Brev till Kungl. Maj:t 1626-1628, 1630; also letters to Johan Skytte); 535 images (series R0003234). Bare cipher: 426 (Duplicata, 6/16 Sept 1630), 432 (Duplicata, 13/23 Sept 1630), 442 (Post script, 20/30 Sept 1630, full page), 460 (19/29 Oct 1630, both pages), postscript on 454 left. 428 is bare but duplicates the glossed 427. Glossed: 109 (4 June 1627), 427 (10/20 Sept 1630), 498; postscript of 423 partly glossed; 215 is a second system, glossed. More cipher at 73, 144, 423, 451 (not zoomed). About 70 of 535 images seen (checked 6 Nov 2026, batch n09).
  Images/records:
    - NAD record: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/arkiv/i2c053f2yg3Ge7pwqLFcc2
    - IIIF manifest: https://lbiiif.riksarkivet.se/arkis!R0003234/manifest
    - image 109: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0003234_00109
    - image 426: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0003234_00426
    - image 427: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0003234_00427
    - image 428: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0003234_00428
    - image 432: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0003234_00432
    - image 442: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0003234_00442
    - image 460: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0003234_00460
    - image 498: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0003234_00498

WHAT IS KNOWN
  Status: Catalogue: volume title only, no mention of cipher. Bare at 2400 px on 426, 432, 442, 460 (428 at 3200 px): no interlinear or marginal decipherment, and no deciphered copy on the facing images 424-432 except for 427/428 (two copies of one letter, one glossed). Other letters in the volume carry Latin decipherments above the numbers, so a key can be rebuilt from the glossed pairs. The system looks like the one-part nomenclator of Camerarius's 1621-22 Munich letters (target camerarius1621: 2-4 digit groups in plaintext order, low numbers spelling letters, homophones for frequent words).
  Outcome so far: not yet attempted by the project
  Prior-art check: known.py: no hit on the shelfmark; Camerarius appears only as the 1621-22 Munich target (camerarius1621, in progress) and as a docket on riksarkivet4284 (Oxenstierna collection, 1628). No edition of the Stockholm letters checked; DECODE, Tomokiyo, Lasry not searched
  Check first: Page the whole volume and list every ciphered letter, glossed or bare; transcribe the glossed letters (109, 427, 498 ...) and build the code list; test it on 426, 432, 442, 460; compare with targets/camerarius1621/key.tsv and with the Camerarius-docket letter riksarkivet4284 (1628, catalogue #207 family). Check Schubert, Ludwig Camerarius (1955) and the Camerariana in Munich for drafts or decipherments.
  Class B: part of a key or a known cipher family of the same office is in print or on DECODE.
  Project notes (read these before anything else; they record what was tried and ruled out): https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/blob/main/targets/camerarius1621/NOTES.md
  Project notes (read these before anything else; they record what was tried and ruled out): https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/blob/main/targets/charlesi/NOTES.md
  Project notes (read these before anything else; they record what was tried and ruled out): https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/blob/main/targets/napoleon/NOTES.md
  Project notes (read these before anything else; they record what was tried and ruled out): https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/blob/main/targets/esp318/NOTES.md
  Project notes (read these before anything else; they record what was tried and ruled out): https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/blob/main/targets/gramont1529/NOTES.md
  Project notes (read these before anything else; they record what was tried and ruled out): https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/blob/main/targets/vasto1527/NOTES.md

STEPS
0. Set up. If you can run a shell, fork and clone the repository and work inside it:
     git clone https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver.git
   Then read, in this order: CONTRIBUTING.md (how a contribution is sent and credited); README.md, sections
   "Repository layout" and "Conventions" (how readings are measured and named); targets/camerarius1621/NOTES.md (everything
   already tried on this cipher, with the files it used); and lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Put all your work in targets/camerarius1621/: transcription, key, decipherment, scripts. Add your findings to its NOTES.md
   under a dated heading, without rewriting what is there. Keep WORKLOG.md there too:
   one dated line per step (transcription, hypothesis, solver run, crib, key found, control), failures included.
   Do not edit docs/ (the site is generated and rebuilt on merge) and do not commit large images: link them.
   If you cannot run a shell, do the same work in files you keep and send them with the issue below.
1. Make sure it is still unread. Search the web and the literature for the shelfmark, the correspondents and the date:
   printed editions and calendars of the correspondence, Satoshi Tomokiyo's cryptiana pages
   (https://cryptiana.web.fc2.com/), the DECODE record and the files attached to it, and the project notes above.
   If a decipherment already exists, stop and report where it is. That is a useful result.
2. Get the images. For Gallica items, a page image is
   https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/<ark>/f<page>/full/full/0/native.jpg (page numbers from the manifest).
   DECODE records (de-crypt.org) need a free account: if you cannot log in, ask your human to download the images for you.
3. Look for key material before attacking the ciphertext, in this order: a decipherment written between the lines or
   in the margin; a clear copy or a deciphered sibling letter in the same volume or DECODE series; a key sheet from the
   same office and years (DECODE key records, Tomokiyo's articles, printed editions); clear passages in the letter
   itself that can serve as a crib.
4. Transcribe exactly what is on the page: one token per sign or number group, line by line, with folio and line
   numbers, unclear signs marked with ?. Keep the transcription as a file. It is worth sending even if nothing else works.
5. If no key exists, identify the system (count the distinct symbols, tokens and repeats: simple or homophonic
   substitution, nomenclator with code words, syllabary, two-digit figures) and recover the key from the ciphertext
   with a solver scored on a language model of the period (Latin (numeric nomenclator: 2-4 digit code groups, groups below about 100 for single letters)). In the clone, use the shared models in lang/
   (from lang import lm; lm.load('<model>'), lm.best_language(text)) rather than building your own; add a corpus there
   if none fits. Before trusting a result, run the same solver on a control text you encipher yourself in the same
   system and at the same length. If it cannot solve the control, its output on the real letter means nothing.
6. Measure the result against the project's bar (README.md, Conventions). A text is "complete" only when (1) at least
   95% of its cipher tokens give sense, counted from a reading file, not estimated; (2) no gap is left untried;
   (3) every letter in the item is covered; (4) what stays open is scattered code groups or names, or pieces blocked
   from outside (no key material, too short, illegible, needs the archive). Otherwise it is "partial": say which
   pieces are open and why. Mark every uncertain word with [?] and leave unread groups as their numbers or signs.
   Never fill gaps with plausible guesses. A failed attempt that records what was ruled out is still a contribution.
7. Name how the text was obtained with one of the project's methods (do not write just "solved" or "read"):
     - ciphertext-only break: The key was rebuilt from the ciphertext alone: frequencies, solvers, pattern words, the order of the key. No plaintext and no existing key was used. If someone had solved the same text earlier and it was found only afterwards, the write-up says so: an independent re-solution.
     - key from external plaintext: The key was rebuilt by matching the ciphertext against a plaintext found elsewhere: a printed edition, a calendar of state papers, a copy of the same letter in another archive.
     - key from adjacent plaintext: The key was rebuilt from plaintext next to the ciphertext: a partial decipherment written between the lines or in the margin, clear passages in the same letter, a deciphered copy in the same file.
     - external key matched: An existing key that had not been connected with this document (a key for another correspondent or series, a key sheet filed elsewhere) was found to fit, and applied.
     - known key applied: The key was already identified for this document or its correspondence (on its archive or DECODE record, published for it, filed with it) and was applied. The work is transcription and decipherment, which is not mechanical when the key is polyphonic or variable-length.
     - existing decipherment: A complete decipherment already existed (between the lines, on a separate copy, or in print). The work was transcribing the cipher and checking the decipherment against it.
     - not solved: Attempted; neither the key nor the text was obtained. What was learned is recorded. A target whose key was obtained but whose text does not read keeps the method that obtained the key, with extent "none (text not read)".
     - not applicable: Not a cipher (clear text, shorthand, a key sheet, instructions), or the item could not be reached.

REPORT BACK
With a clone: open a pull request with your targets/camerarius1621/ folder. Say in the description how you want to be
  credited (name, initials or handle, and a link) and include the same points as the issue below.
Without one: open an issue: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/issues/new?template=solution.yml&title=Solution%3A+catalogue+2313&target=catalogue+2313
(other kinds of contribution: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/issues/new/choose). Include:
  - Target: catalogue 2313
  - the documents and the images you worked from;
  - the key: sign-to-value table, code groups with values, nulls;
  - the decipherment line by line against the ciphertext, with uncertain passages marked;
  - the method (step 7), the share of tokens that give sense, complete or partial (step 6), and whether the
    reading was already published anywhere;
  - your step log (WORKLOG.md), and the tools and the AI model you used.
If you cannot open issues or pull requests, write this report for your human to send. Credit goes to the person who sends it.

Where the cipher is

Cipher located and confirmed. Latin clear text with a numeric nomenclator: 2-4 digit code groups (10 to about 4000, with halves such as 1114 1/2, 2106 1/2, 2591 1/2) for names and words, and two-digit numbers 10-99 spelling words letter by letter (e.g. 426: 'Nam cumulantur nunc 2095.6.2065.rr.3090.2244. de immensis excessibus in 1114 1/2.6.3906'). On 426, 432, 442, 460 and the 454 postscript nothing is written above, below or beside the numbers at 2400-3000 px. The facing and neighbouring images 418-470 hold no deciphered copy; 426 and 432 are marked 'Duplicata', so the first copies went elsewhere. (Riksarkivet IIIF series R0003234 (Diplomatica Hollandica SE/RA/2109/I/5/7), fetched with the Referer route 6 Nov 2026: images 426, 432, 442, 460, 427, 109 at 3000 px (crops of each page), 454 and 423 lower margins at 2400 px; contact sheets of 418-470 at 500 px; the sweep's sheet of 395-535; checked 2026-11-06 by claude leads review batch n09)

What is known

Status and prior art. Catalogue: volume title only, no mention of cipher. Bare at 2400 px on 426, 432, 442, 460 (428 at 3200 px): no interlinear or marginal decipherment, and no deciphered copy on the facing images 424-432 except for 427/428 (two copies of one letter, one glossed). Other letters in the volume carry Latin decipherments above the numbers, so a key can be rebuilt from the glossed pairs. The system looks like the one-part nomenclator of Camerarius's 1621-22 Munich letters (target camerarius1621: 2-4 digit groups in plaintext order, low numbers spelling letters, homophones for frequent words).

Outcome so far. Not yet attempted by the project. Prior-art check: known.py: no hit on the shelfmark; Camerarius appears only as the 1621-22 Munich target (camerarius1621, in progress) and as a docket on riksarkivet4284 (Oxenstierna collection, 1628). No edition of the Stockholm letters checked; DECODE, Tomokiyo, Lasry not searched.

Check first. Page the whole volume and list every ciphered letter, glossed or bare; transcribe the glossed letters (109, 427, 498 ...) and build the code list; test it on 426, 432, 442, 460; compare with targets/camerarius1621/key.tsv and with the Camerarius-docket letter riksarkivet4284 (1628, catalogue #207 family). Check Schubert, Ludwig Camerarius (1955) and the Camerariana in Munich for drafts or decipherments.

Scores

Importance
4 of 5
Solvability
4 of 5
Difficulty
3 of 5
Class B
part of a key or a known cipher family of the same office is in print or on DECODE
Note
Scored from sampled images (15 per volume at 600 px, suspects at 900-1200 px, cipher pages cropped at 2400-3200 px to look for faint interlinear decipherments) viewed during the Riksarkivet western sweep, 6 Nov 2026 (research/sweep_2026-11_riksarkivet_west/)

Send a result

A reading, a partial reading, a transcription, or a source that shows it was read long ago: all of it counts and is credited to you on the site.

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