Cipher Mysteries posts in the ‘British Library’ category




The Scorpio “Scorpion” in the VMs…

Posted by nickpelling on Nov 21st, 2008

While snooping around the (mostly empty) user subsites on Glen Claston’s Voynich Central, I came across a page by someone called Robin devoted solely to the Scorpio “Scorpion” page in the VMs. This has an unusual drawing of a scorpion (or salamander) at the centre, and which I agree demands closer attention…

My first observation is that, while [...] Read more »

Review of “The Voynich Project”…

Posted by nickpelling on Nov 10th, 2008

As a Brit, there’s a very particular class of American-made sequel that fills my film-watching soul with despair. On planes and slow Sundays, you’ve doubtless caught a few exemplars yourself: “Garfield 2″, “Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London”, “National Lampoon’s European Vacation” all spring readily to my mind, but these form but the tip of a particularly yellow-coloured [...] Read more »

BL cipher manuscript update…

Posted by nickpelling on Oct 6th, 2008

I’ve just heard back from the British Library Manuscript department about BL MS Add. 10035, “The Subtelty of Witches”, which I mentioned here a few days ago: ”unfortunately it does not begin in English. The whole of the manuscript is written in cipher.”
So: was Eric Sams mistaken? Might the British Library actually have two unreadable books? Well… after a [...] Read more »

British Library cipher manuscript…?

Posted by nickpelling on Oct 2nd, 2008

Are you an historian with an enciphered document you want to read? If so, here’s a link to an article you really ought to have a look at: “Cryptanalysis and Historical Research” by Eric Sams, from Archivaria 21 (1985-1986) [it's actually an extended version of two earlier articles he wrote for the TLS in 1977 [...] Read more »