Clavis Polygraphiae

To the divine Maximilian Caesar: a letter of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Saint James at Würzburg, on the Polygraphia.

I was hesitating with a wavering mind, most invincible Emperor Maximilian, and was myself somewhat doubtful whether I should be doing something worth the effort if I dedicated the book of our Polygraphia to your Caesarean majesty. For among the great you are the greatest, among the more powerful the most powerful, and among all the wise by far the wisest; to whom, therefore, nothing should be inscribed unless it is great, nothing dedicated unless elaborated with the highest learning. But I, having attained nothing, or little, of literary learning, hesitated rather long, not without reason, whether I ought to bring my trifles before so great a majesty, since I am neither fit in talent for elaborating anything nor adorned with the necessary charm of expression.

For I know, and cannot deny, how scanty my equipment is, how rude my talent, and how empty of any vein of eloquence in speaking; for which reason, after due consideration, I stood back for some time and feared to appear before your glorious majesty as an inept writer. For since, after God, you are by right lord of the world, it is no wonder if I, an unlearned man, the least of monks, fear the judgment of so great a majesty of yours, and dread to offer those labors of mine which I know are not worthy of your hands. And while I was turning these things over in my mind, a messenger arrived with letters sent by your highness, by which you summoned me to Cologne, the expenses necessary for the journey having already previously been assigned through another. But when I reread the letters of your serenity, confidence at once overcame modest shame; consideration of your innate gentleness drove out fear.

For I know that your disposition is most mild: since you are the most modest of all, you are accustomed to be gentle to the humble and to resist the proud. You do not know how to be lifted up vainly, nor, after the manner of tyrants, to despise the humble who are devoted to your highness; because just as you have nowhere to grow on earth, so no envy will penetrate your mind. You are the greatest; you have also carried out many things, and great ones, no less bravely than wisely, both in peace and in war; by these you have also obtained an eternal name, since with reverence for highest honor you are celebrated by the love and favor of all your subjects. These are the riches of princes: the love and favor of the people, and to do justice to each according to the commandment of the charity of God. Since, therefore, all carry your name to the stars with praises, and all proclaim you most mild and most humane, there was thereafter no reason why I in particular should suspect you of being more severe, especially when by your letter you deign to entice me to write.

Thus, at last encouraged by weighing these things, I laid aside all fear and took up great confidence in the gentleness innate in you. Indeed, since all draw confidence from the fountain of your piety, why should I alone not approach trustfully? You, who are always gracious, mild, and pious to all, surely cannot be cruel to me alone. Therefore, with that humility which befits me, which I owe and can show, I approach the throne of your most excellent majesty, prostrate on the ground; I devotedly offer the aforesaid work of Polygraphia; and I humbly commend my littleness to your serenity, as a servant to his lord. Therefore now receive, most merciful Caesar, the very small little gift that I bring, in which may you deign to weigh my mind, most subject to you, not its value.

In the following synthemata of our Polygraphia there are, in certain places, some mysteries wrapped in riddles, lest the deeper meaning of the art, which lies hidden, should become manifest to the understanding of all. Just as not all things befit all people, so not everything everywhere is always suitable for everyone. Therefore certain mysteries are enclosed here, which in my judgment can be more useful and more necessary to none than to princely men. For the more matters they are concerned with, the more caution of secrecy must be applied in their counsels. For this book teaches princes to command secrecy by its arcana. But because your Caesarean majesty, occupied with many matters, does not have time to examine those things which lie wrapped in mystery, lest he be deprived of the fruit of my labor, I have added a little explanatory book of the whole work, which I have entitled the key of the Polygraphia; with it as guide you will more easily understand all the things obstructed here by figures. May God preserve you unharmed for our salvation. I wrote on the twenty-sixth day of the month of April, in the year of Christ 1508.

Table or Index of the Lucubrations of Johannes Trithemius, first abbot of Spanheim, and afterward of St. James at Würzburg.

Johannes Trithemius, abbot, was born in the village of Trittenheim, in the diocese of Trier, on the banks of the river Moselle, on the first day of the month of February, at the eleventh hour, in the thirtieth minute after midday, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 1462, in the tenth indiction of the Romans, his father being Johannes de Heidenberg, and his mother called Elisabeth de Longouico: namely, in that year in which the city of Mainz, in the dissension of two pontiffs, was captured, lost its liberty, and found servitude, many of the citizens having been driven into exile; in the fourth year running of Pope Pius, the second of that name, and the twenty-second of Emperor Frederick III. But in the year of the Lord 1482, in the monastery of Spanheim in the diocese of Mainz, namely on the first day of February, on which he had once been born, he laid aside the secular habit and there assumed the monastic one under the rule of the holy father Benedict, according to the observance newly introduced. In the following year, which was the eighty-third above the four-hundredth and thousandth, after Johannes de Colenhusen, the abbot, had been transferred by canonical postulation to [Segenia?], Johannes Trithemius, by the common election of the brothers, was promoted and ordained abbot of the aforesaid monastery of Spanheim on the fourth day before the Kalends of July, and presided for twenty-three years, one month, and nineteen days. When these had passed, not without many labors, provoked by the rashness of certain rivals, he accepted the abbacy of St. James at Würzburg, which was offered to him, and of his own free will resigned Spanheim, full of useless cares. In both places he wrote a number of little works, which he recently listed for me with his own hand on a small sheet, as subscribed below. Since you, my friend, ask me for their titles, I gladly agree to your wishes, so that, from consideration of so many labors of our common friend and teacher, you may hold his memory more closely. And first, indeed, I shall record the titles of those lucubrations which he laboriously composed while he was abbot at Spanheim. First he wrote the constitutions of his order which were made in the provincial chapters by command of the presidents, one book. On the manner of holding a provincial chapter, one book. On the Rule of Saint Benedict, two books. Homilies and exhortatory sermons to his monks, two books, which he dedicated to his predecessor. On the temptations of cloistered persons and the remedies for the same, two books.

[unclear] on the priestly life, one book. Against the private property of monks, one book. On the vanity and misery of this life, one book. A penthic work, that is, a mournful one, on the ruin of his order, one book. On the illustrious men of his order, four books. Praises of the order of the Carmelite friars, two books. To Gerlacus, abbot of Deutz, Praises of Manual Writers, one book. To Johann Dalberg, bishop of Worms, On Ecclesiastical Writers, one book. On the praises of Saint Anne, grandmother of the Lord, one book. To the questions of Rutger the Sicambrian, canon of [Dumetis?], one book. A chronicle of his monastery of Sponheim, a volume of no small size, one book. A chronicle or annals of the monastery of Hirsau, two large volumes. A chronicle of the succession of the dukes of Bavaria and the counts palatine, to Philipp, count palatine and prince-elector, one book. The Life of Saint Irmina, nun and first abbess in the Horrea at Trier, one book. On the misery of claustral prelates, two books. Praises of Saint Andrew the apostle, one book. Praises of Saint Joseph, foster-father of the Lord, one book. Praises of Saint Benedict the abbot, one book. Praises of the monastic life, one book. Praises of true penitence, one book. Praises of the study of the divine scriptures, one book. A monologue of a man devoted to God with himself, one book. On the miracles of the holy mother Anne, one book. To Ulrich, canon of Cologne, on questions concerning the Gospel of John, one book. To the same, on questions concerning the Psalms, one book. To the presidents of the annual chapter on the observance of Bursfelde, he abridged the statutes of the same union, one book. The spiritual exercise of monks, one book. An epitome or breviary of the same, one book. On ecclesiastical computation, one book. On the illustrious writers of Germany, to Jakob Wimpfeling of Schlettstadt, one book. Letters from Sponheim to various persons, four books. Orations delivered in chapters and elsewhere are twenty-four in number; these make one book. He wrote forty very fine sermons to his brothers of the Sponheim monastery, one book. Sermons to the people on feast days, one book. Several supplicatory prayers to God and the saints, one book. From the Greek language he translated into Latin Maximus the abbot on the incarnation of the Lord. Also the anathemas of Saint Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, promulgated against heretics in the third synod of Ephesus, and certain letters of the same synod. He also wrote, for the edification of monks, a notable work which he entitled On the Threefold Region of Cloistered Persons, three books. He wrote also certain other smaller works, the titles of which he did not indicate to me. These, dearest brother Nicolaus, are the Trithemian little works, which

for twenty-three years, while serving as abbot, he labored by lamplight at Sponheim, to the honor of God, amid cares and the continual occupation of household affairs, reading or writing day and night whenever he could steal for himself lawful leisure. During the years in which he presided there he brought into the Sponheim library the greatest treasury of books in every field, not only by the art of printing but also by the hands of scribes. For when I was with him for the space of one year, to learn Greek and Hebrew letters from him, I counted two thousand volumes in the library, of which at least eight hundred had been properly written with the pen on parchment and paper. I often heard from his own mouth that he had spent more than two thousand florins on books; these he had not taken from the substance of the monastery, which was always very meager, but, since he was known and dear to many princes, he spent for the most part on books the gifts with which he was honored by them. For he is the greatest lover and cultivator of books above all whom I know living in the flesh today. It is said, however, by many that his successor, who is now abbot at Sponheim, has alienated several volumes; whether this is true, I certainly do not know.

In the year of the Lord 1504, when a fierce war had broken out between the kingdom and Philip, count palatine, Trithemius, from fear of the enemy, withdrew with his library and the possessions of the monastery to Kreuznach, the nearest town; and I likewise returned to my own affairs. But in the year 1506, in the month of October, Trithemius himself, stirred by the envy of certain people, accepted the abbacy of Saint James at Würzburg and resigned that of Sponheim. There, in quiet, he writes various works, whose titles he recently sent to me at my request. To Maximilian Caesar he issued a remarkable work, which he entitled Polygraphy, in six books. To the same man, the key of the same Polygraphy, one book. Responses to Eight Questions of the same Caesar, one book. To Joachim, margrave of Brandenburg, prince-elector, Various Questions, Orations, and Propositions, twenty books. To the same man, On Foreknowings Lawful for a Christian, and Unlawful Ones, two books. To the same man he wrote that remarkable and laborious work of Steganography, eight books, which that rash Bouillus, not understanding it, criticized most ignorantly and falsely. To the same prince, Letters, one book. To the same man, Against Witches, three books. To Jacob Trithemius his brother, Itinerary of His Life, two books. To Burghard von Horneck, physician, On the Private Property of Nuns, one book [unclear].

one. He wrote a history or annals on the origin, kings, and deeds of the people of the Franks and Germans, in three large volumes, beginning the narrative with King Marcomer, who in the 433rd year before the incarnation of the Lord led the people from the borders of Scythia into Germany, to the mouths of the Rhine, down to the twenty-eighth and ninth year of Emperor Maximilian. To Lawrence, bishop of Würzburg and duke of East Francia, he wrote an epitome or abridgment of the histories of the same three volumes, in three books. To the same man, on the dukes and bishops of the Franks of Würzburg, one book. On the miracles shown at the memorial of our Lady Saint Mary at Dettelbach, six books. An Apologetic against Charles de Bovelles, who slandered the things he did not understand, one book. On the origin and kings of the Franks, one book. On the miracles of the same [unclear] at Urticetum near Heilbronn, shown, six books. An Apologetic against Charles de Bovelles, who slandered the things he did not understand, one book. On the origin of the miracles at the memorial [unclear].

A chronicle of his monastery, over which he now presides, Saint James at Würzburg, one book. To Albert, of the margraves of Brandenburg, archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, a life of the divine Rabanus, archbishop, three books. On the translation of the same man from Mainz into Saxony, one book. To the same man, a life of Saint Maximus, bishop, one book. To John, count palatine, duke of Bavaria, and count in Sponheim, residing at Simmern, on the origin, kings, and dukes [unclear] of the letters of Würzburg, which he wrote in that abbey, [unclear] rosary in suitable form: such as the cursus, rosary, missal office, and various prayers, together also with proses or sequences on Saint Anne, [unclear] of our Savior. He also wrote praises, prayers, and a rosary on Saint Mary Magdalene. On Saint Joseph, foster-father of the Lord, a rosary. On Saint Peter the Apostle, a rosary. On Saint John the Evangelist, a rosary. At the request of John, archbishop of Trier, a sequence on Anne, which begins, “Jesu, king of the heavens,” to the melody “Ave praeclara.” Another, to be sung on her feast, which begins, “Let them rejoice on this day.” A third, to the provincial of the Carmelites at Augsburg, and it begins, “Let us rejoice in honor.” A fourth, on Saint Hildegard, virgin, which begins thus: “Praise be to thee, Lord of eternal glory.” A fifth, on Saint Rupert, duke of Bingen, which begins, “Let them rejoice on this day.” A sixth, on Saint Joseph, foster-father of the Lord, and it begins thus: “Let us sing, renowned [unclear].” A seventh, on Saint Rabanus, archbishop.

The eighth, on the wounds of Christ, which begins thus: “Let us adore Jesus Christ; let us bewail him crucified.” The ninth, on the compassion of the blessed Mary ever virgin; and it begins thus: “Come, let us weep with devout mind, sharing the suffering of the blessed Virgin Mary,” under the melody, namely, “Ave praeclara.” The tenth, on Saint Joachim, father of Our Lady, which begins thus: “Let us adore the Trinity, let us praise together the unity, of Father, Son, and Spirit.” The eleventh, on the good proper angel of every person. The twelfth, in the proper Mass of each priest [sacerdotis?]. The thirteenth, on Saint Maximus, bishop of Mainz. The fourteenth, on Saint Martha, virgin, Christ’s hostess. The fifteenth, on Saint Mary Magdalene. The sixteenth, on Saint Mary of Egypt. The seventeenth, on Saint James the Greater, apostle. The eighteenth, on Saint Andrew, apostle. The nineteenth, on Saint Benedict, abbot. The twentieth, on All Saints. And for each of the named memorials and saints he composed individual new offices of the Mass, conformable to the divine Scriptures. He wrote besides a little work of meditations and prayers on the Lord’s incarnation, nativity, life, passion, and death, suited to devotion, in two books. The Mirror of Heavenly Doctrine, serving not a little for compunction of mind, one book, which begins thus: “The beginning of human salvation.” He also composed many very devout meditations and prayers on our Lord Jesus Christ, on his most holy mother the Virgin Mary, and on various saints, composed with beautiful variety, together with very many other things, which all devout posterity will see and marvel at. These, dearest Nicolaus, are the works of Trithemius our abbot that are known to me, which he has produced in almost thirty-two years of continuous nightly study, besides those which, not yet finished, are in his hands and still under the hammer. Farewell, from my house at [Duraclusa?], on the fifth day of the month of October, in the year of our salvation one thousand five hundred and fifteen. Johannes Duraclusius.

Here ends the index of the works of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Saint James at Würzburg, from the letter of Johannes Duraclusius, his disciple, to Nicolaus Hamerius of Emel.

Preface of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of St. James of Würzburg, in the Polygraphia to Emperor Maximilian.

We have read that many wise men of the ancients, philosophers, kings, and princes once devised various and manifold methods by which, when sending their messengers to more distant places, they might safely entrust to them the secrets of their counsel, and whatever secret mystery happened to need to be confided: so that they might become fit for carrying these things through, and safe from every attack of wicked men, lest either the simplicity of the cabalists should lay bare the mystery, or the inborn curiosity of the [bacucei] should bring harm upon apostolic matters.

Great among these, Caesar Augustus of the Romans, desiring in difficult matters to use the dark service of messengers, changed the breathings of the conceived utterance from clear forms into obscure ones; and by the [scheme?] of transposition, with a fine invention, he made their barbarousness, though resisting his wishes, conform to his nod. And this receptive and almost perpetual order, nevertheless subject to will and to the reckoning of time, although it keeps messengers safe on the road from the attack of the [bacucei], yet, by not keeping the regulated limits of its own system, will make all who look on anxious with suspicion of the matter.

That famous Archimedes of Syracuse, easily the chief of mathematicians, took a white bird suited to his arrangements, bare as to head and feet, and fastened it round about to a staff cut into the form of a tetragon; and, after his assistants had been set in due proportion, he entrusted the work to the winged instrument, until the image of the white bird appeared changed into a magpie. When this had been duly performed, he loosened what had been fastened with his own hand; and when he had allowed it to fly away, at once a great separation of appearance took place among the intimates of the inner chambers; and soon there arose the too-vagrant monster of an image, previously monastic and twisted, at the sight of which no one could think what it was. Nor did the disagreement of the owls come to rest before the image of the master had skilfully bound the magpie again with a similar tetragon.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, the eloquent orator, using talent and art, changed the small elements of phrasing into signs, and placed the industry, or character, of his will in the place of the customary phrase. In this very innovation, indeed, he used such abundance that his invention could suffice for nearly all things in the world. To these fore-announcers of mysteries the discipline of the art gave a wondrous agility, so that, contrary to the nature of all solid things, they use the steps of feet; and they serve the good will of the master not by small divisions or moments, but by whole degrees. A king can always use their obedience very safely, though not without great labor and the manifest suspicion of the [bacacei].

But Cyprian, the most holy bishop and martyr of the church of Carthage, wishing to provide for the advantage of Christians, enlarged to no small extent the very teachings of the Ciceronian system, and supplied what had been lacking for our customs.

Pharamund likewise, the forty-third after Marcomer,

A most powerful king of the Franks in Germany, when, in the four hundred and twenty-fourth year of the Lord’s nativity, he powerfully entered the borders of the Gauls, in order that everything might be done safely, bound foreign minutiae to his secrets.

Clodius also, called the Long-haired, the elder son of Pharamond, succeeding his father in the kingdom of the Franks, and afterward having violently subjected all Gaul to his rule, ordered all the Gauls, as conquered slaves, to be stripped of their hair and shaved as to the beard; but he commanded the Franks, the victorious lords of the Gauls, to let the hair and beard grow. Hence he was called Long-haired. In imitation of his father, he wrapped the mysteries of counsel in signs of his own and foreign signs.

Charles, surnamed the Great, the sixty-third king of the Franks after Marcomer, who first among the Franks ruled over the Romans, with Nanno the grammarian as his teacher, desiring to adorn the German tongue, which was his paternal language, with grammatical rules in imitation of Latin, began an arduous work, which nevertheless, being entangled in many affairs and forestalled by death, he did not complete. He attached owls of mystery in various and many ways; than him Brabant, or Namur, Germany had no greater native. To each prefect of the kingdom he assigned individual owls by art.

The Northmen, having gone out from the borders of Gothia, when once they were cruelly devastating Gaul, summoned owls from Greece and prepared a safe hiding-place for their secrets, which today is known to very few. Our Bede, a monk in England, not ignorant of the deed of the Northmen, described many inventions of the ancients similar to these, by which they made the bright path of mystery dark. He himself first commended artrology to later memory; he invented dactylology. There were those who distinguished minutiae by the hissings of [unclear], whose prudence turned night into day; without the service of owls, light shone in darkness.

Concerning these matters, moreover, the illustrious count palatine, prince-elector, was also concerned about our Steganography, and received from us a manifest trial of a proven document. Others, multiplying minutiae by regulated division, after the manner of barbarians overturned the forms of nature, concealing in darkness the dances of the shadows of things being born; where the secret of counsel was required, they supplied cabala to the absent through diapyramata. Great labor in these matters is required, and long exercise of the mind over years; in it no one suddenly becomes skilled for use. Necessity endures all things.

There were also those whom celestial harmony taught to compose foreign sounds, of which there was a twofold use for those who understood: while one suspended the sense, the other lifted the mind into the ether. God can do all things. Many attempted to seek light in shadow without light, but they were by no means able, because the fire lies buried in ashes. Some practiced painters of masks divided one wind into two exactly, one of which

always lies hidden in darkness; the other, however, a lover of light, hates philosophical darkness, loves light, and guards the secret by means of the owl. Again, [unclear] there were some, whose purpose, advancing to wider matters, bound the wind, invisible to the eyes, to visible things, and compelled many growing things, and no less stones and shrubs, which lack voices, to speak with a human tongue. Why should I bring in brute animals, when all things obey art? This secret is rightly preferred to all inventions thus far, through which the hidden things of mysteries take on strength and power; yet reason is pleased to hide a great thing from [little ones?], and by no means to entrust pearls to swine. From nothing, nothing is brought back. The known multitude of visible things is great; but invisible things remain remote from us. If these are prudently adapted to those, the enlightened mind of man will [know?] and behold wondrous things. But to treat more fully of these matters is not the purpose of the present work; since they are greater and weightier, they require another work and another time.

Matthias, most powerful king of Hungary and hammer of the Turks harder than adamant, who in our age fought many victorious battles against the enemies of the cross of Christ, discovered many things by wondrous ingenuity and art, adorned owls with periphrases, kept his mysteries, [made them?] with manifold variety, and by manifest diligence destroyed the plans of his enemies. He preferred wisdom to gold; therefore, always victorious, he triumphed gloriously.

In the wise man there is a sound mind in a well-mortified body; borne upward by desire for a higher understanding, when through the likeness of the binary it has returned from the ternary into unity, thereafter it will easily rise to the denary. Pythagoras of Samos, that philosopher, warned his disciples not to forget the quaternary, in which the first perfection of numbering is contained. For thus we count: one, two, three, four. Stop; take thought, for you have ten. For the denary is the head of perfection. What is eleven, if not ten and unity? What is thirty? Three times ten. What is forty? Four times ten. You have a hundred, and you have not departed at all from the quaternary. And what is a hundred, if not ten times ten? Profound mysteries lie hidden in these things, and they are manifest to few.

For love of brevity we pass over in silence many who, aiding nature by art, adhered prudently to secrets, and what seemed impossible to many who did not know, they brought by keen study into easy use. A cultivated mind can do great things, and he who cleaves to God becomes, in understanding, higher than the world. There are many mysteries of kings, and counsels full of cares, in which confidence and trust are required; [unclear] harms the one who trusts, and [unclear], even when it is present, more often admits [unclear]. Therefore it will have been worthwhile for all princes to be philosophers and endowed with singular wisdom, just, gentle, benevolent, and distinguished by munificence, so that they themselves may neither wish to deceive others, nor easily be overthrown by others. Justice alone, the companion of prudence, makes a prince glorious.

The number 1234, in which the greatest secret lies hidden.

At the urging of the aforesaid prince and lord elector, Philip, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria, I, Johannes Trithemius, now abbot of the monastery of Saint James at Würzburg, but then of Saint Martin the bishop in Sponheim, in the diocese of Mainz, began to write eight books of mysteries in steganography. But while I was already continuing my night-work on the third book of that same work, there occurred a matter which, briefly if I can, I am about to relate.

In the year of the Lord’s birth 1499, in the second Roman indiction, when Arnold Bostius, a Carmelite of the town of Ghent, asked me by letter what new thing I was publishing and with what studies I was occupied, on the second day of Palm week I wrote back to him through merchants, as to a friend, that I had under the hammer a new and wondrous work of steganography, setting out in order what was contained in each of the books. But before my letter reached Ghent, Bostius departed this life to Christ during the Easter days. The prior of that place received the letter, opened it, read it, and, astonished, as I suppose, by the novelty of what was promised, shared it with many others who asked to read and copy it. From this it came about that this letter of mine, in a short time made known through almost all Germany and Gaul, and often copied by many, turned many very learned men also to amazement and wonder, to such a degree that they hesitated what, consistently with truth, they ought to think of me. Among these there were some who steadfastly asserted that my promises in the said letter were frivolous, impossible, and false, shamelessly devised by me out of empty desire for glory. Others said: “This abbot Trithemius promises great and wondrous things; if he can do them, he can do so only by the ministry of demons, since they seem to far exceed the limits of nature. But if he cannot, who will doubt that he is a liar, deservedly to be rejected by all good and learned men?” But let both be far from me, since I promised natural things. Yet of all those who rashly judged my unknown matters, the most rash, the most unjust assessor of things, at last burst forth in public: Charles de Bovelles, a Picard by nation. After he had travelled through the upper parts of Alsace and had come to me at Sponheim for the sake of lodging, intending to return to Gaul by way of Trier, I treated him with such courtesy as I could and, for as long as he was with me, showed him all the benefits of hospitality with a cheerful countenance. And since, as commonly happens among friends, especially those devoted to the study of letters, I had shown all my things for my most welcome guest to see, among other things the aforesaid work of steganography, not yet at that time completed, also presented itself. Bovelles saw it, read it cursorily, and, his mind occupied elsewhere, said that he admired the invention and praised it; nor did he take care how it might be understood. Hence, since he did not seek the key to its understanding, he deserved to hear or perceive none of the things that were contained in that night-work of ours.

Having returned after these things to Gaul, he repaid us evil for good, and shamefully violated the covenant of Christian friendship. For when he was asked by Lord Germain de Ganay, a common friend, later bishop of Orléans, what he had found with me and seen at Sponheim, he wrote back falsehoods for truths and lies for benefits, condemning and rashly judging things which he was in no way able to comprehend with his understanding. For since he believed that the palm of learning would be conferred upon him by envy and lying, he wrote back to the aforementioned most learned man a letter full of falsehood, lies, wrongs, and many insults; in it, making mention of a steganography he had not understood, he proclaims me, by false, lying, and exceedingly injurious rash presumption, devoted to wicked arts, a magician and necromancer. To his most mendacious injuries and blasphemies, by God’s mercy, I shall shortly reply in such a way that all posterity may understand both that I am innocent and that Bovillus is impious, cruel, rash, and in this matter a liar. I steadfastly affirm, I truthfully declare, and I confidently swear upon my soul that I have never had any commerce with demons, or with wicked or pernicious magical or necromantic arts; but that each and every thing which I have either written or promised that I would write is pure, sound, natural, and in no respect whatever contrary to the Christian faith. Hence I do not fear to submit my promises for examination before good and learned men, whenever and as often as there shall be need; and I by no means intend to resist their determination. That I have inserted this history of Bovillus’s rashness into this preface of mine had a reasonable cause: namely, that all may understand that the work of steganography, which until now remains buried in darkness, was done with mature counsel; not because I fear the rash judgments of Bovillus, but lest I seem to give more such persons cause for suspecting similar things about me. Indeed, so far as concerns me, I would rather appease my rivals by silence than irritate them by letters, or provoke them to madness by writings. For I judged it better that all the things wonderfully discovered should remain in perpetual silence than that I should incur, even through men’s false estimation, the mark of pernicious magical or necromantic superstition. Let steganography therefore lie hidden in darkness; and let it not be made common to the lying Bovillian company, which is accustomed to judge concerning unknown matters and to corrupt the reputation of a good man by the mere lust of depravity. Nevertheless, since friends urge it, so that together with Bovillus our rivals may understand how rash and lying an injury he has done us, while steganography remains within its own bounds, we consent to bring into the light the following work, which we call Polygraphy, divided into six books. Let those who wish read it, and let friends read this volume without ill temper; when they have understood all its hidden mysteries, let them themselves be judges, without envy, whether they are natural or superstitious. For I know and am certain that all things are

... sincere, pure, natural, and removed from every pursuit of wicked superstition. But whenever the discourse becomes rather obscure, this is done for this reason: lest a madman should misuse the sword of defense for destruction, which a sane man in soul and mind bears for his own protection. Yet nothing evil is contained in it on that account, although perverse men misuse even good things for evil. Whoever presumes to condemn this edition of ours is himself conscious and witness against himself that he has never truly understood it. Mysteries are concealed under enigmas, lest the secrets of the Bubones be made manifest to the Bacuceans in any fashion one likes. If anyone takes pleasure in knowing these things, let him approach as a reader, with envy set far away. For I am a Christian; I am a priest and a monk under the rule of the blessed father Benedict. I love Christ, and with what sincerity of mind I can, I devoutly adore him always. I have no dealings with demons, have had none, and, with God as protector, shall have none; no studies in magical, necromantic, or profane arts; no occupations, no teachings. He who thinks otherwise of me thinks wrongly, does me injury, and defends the open lie of Bouillus. But now let us dismiss these matters, and let us set forth in order what is contained in each book of our Polygraphy.

Register or Index of the Things Treated in the First Book

In the first book of this Polygraphy of ours we arrange and distribute, according to the order of our ternary, the words of the Latin language, as many as are found. By their use and service all princes throughout the world will find safe assistance in any secrets whatever, which, without danger to the mystery, without mark, and without suspicion of the Bacuceans, will remain perpetually hidden. For the Bubones this path is established as safe, and not ever to be violated by any investigation whatsoever. Knowledge of the hidden matter is granted to only two, if the binary is skilfully reduced to the monad. Ignorance is the mother of error, and he who scorns learning a good thing which he does not know loves blindness. The periphrases themselves, moreover, are extended in the manner either of one admonishing or of one supplicating; their subject matter can be varied for every visible thing of this world. For they are suited to individual mysteries, and are set before the secrets of the Greeks no less than before our own. When you have understood the things you see, do not rashly despise the hidden things you do not see. You perceive the accidents; the substance remains invisible. Hence the greater things lie hidden; the lesser lie open to those who look upon them. Since this has been done rationally, let no good man take it for evil, since every suitable person can from these things advance to higher matters, provided he wishes to do so. But on this occasion it has not pleased me to bring higher matters into the light...

[unclear]; since an inconvenient time seems to stand in the way. I have prefixed the letters of the Latin alphabet in order to the individual words with this consideration, so that the operator may have an easy method in the proposed matter, and, reciprocally, may be relieved in the relation from excessive labor. The paraphrasmata that are placed outside the straight order of the lines are not devoid of the mysteries of the art, since they serve [unclear] propositions for the necessary completion of perfection, not obscure ones. Therefore they are also taken up in the former; they are neglected in the latter. For they themselves are certain means by which every suspicion of an adversary is removed. All things have been set down with reason, so that not even one proposition is introduced idly. By as much, for example, as the sun advances farther from the equinoctial circle, by so much the day is prolonged for those dwelling in those regions. Therefore, in order that unity may advance straight, by means of the ternary, into the binary, the paradigm that we hand down must be observed rather carefully. And first, indeed, once the operator, understanding his intention, has had prior consideration, let him observe what, by means of the binary, he will be about to grant to the ternary; let him divide the day with the night by minutes, and distinguish the small divisions of the winds, not by an alien supposition of phrase, but by its own. In any mystical business let him diligently beware lest he overturn the established order of the art, or substitute one paraphrasma for another, or grant to one what is owed to another; otherwise unity will not release the binary, and the whole operation will be confused and useless. Let the wandering night not be of excessive length; you will not press on, advancing beyond the limits established for it by the art; let curiosity not change water and snow, nor let him sleep in the day who keeps watch through the night. Let the mind, anxious in its ingenuity, use the art with watchful correction, and care must be taken lest the wind be [unclear]. After this a rule is prescribed for approaching the practice of the art: namely, that, so far as it can by mystical art, it imitate one human person consisting of two natures, that is, the soul surpassing visible things while the flesh remains visible. For just as the soul is not seen, although it has been placed in a visible body, so let the secret of the mind go as a secret; nevertheless let it operate at will, requiring the guidance of light, remaining in its own workshop of shadows. Therefore, whenever the body serves the soul, the servant the master, the will reason, see that the principal virtue of the power in the light of the paraphrasma be preserved in its natural vigor. For by this teaching the first of the Peripatetics will duly enter the second binary through [unclear]. Next likewise we advise the willing man that, whenever a leaf is moved by the wind, he should discern the property of each nature and compare the night itself with the day by degrees and minutes, and conform the darkness to the light. But if Phoebus has prejudiced the night, or the night the sun, through which a confluence of eclipse would be born, either let unity take back the binary, which is dismissed in the light, or let the shadow of night be brought back to the first line of the sun. Hold fixed in memory whatever has anywhere been produced in number, weight, and measure. Therefore, when you encounter the knot of the difficulty mentioned, number the small divisions of the night, note also the paraphrasmata of the daylight, and so temper one from the other that the necessary proportion may follow the action. Beware lest, while an eclipse of the sun lasts, you interrupt the necessary labor. No less take care that you be mindful of the ancient fathers, Thuysco, who, the grandson of Noah, is the father of the Teutons, and Marcomer, who is read to have first led the people of the Franks from the borders of Scythia into Germany, to the mouths of the Rhine. For the Franks are brothers of the Greeks and, intermingled with the Germans, once made two languages from one. Hence, according to the oracle, g.g.g. receive those who have lost one g. Finally, studious inquirer into polygraphy, you are advised that, after you have obtained the true method of working for these intentions, eagerly sought, you should prudently guard all things and not pour them out indiscriminately into the knowledge of all men, especially filthy ones. For this reason do not ask, since you know that there is nothing in the world so good and holy that the reprobate do not rather often abuse it for evil.

Indication of the things that are treated in the second book of the Polygraphy.

[unclear] and measure No. [unclear] 3 59.

An index of the things contained in the third book of the Polygraphia.

In the third book of the Polygraphia, having overstepped the prescribed bounds of our nation by rational design, we are led to foreign matters; placed in the midst of the essential [unclear] of the Franks, we wander farther abroad through images and likenesses of barbarians. For with nearly four thousand mythological paraphrases artfully arranged in order, we show a very easy path for an artificial unity, through which it will more securely [unclear] symbolic notions with its binary at all times. Here the binary is harder for unity, unless our philologist be sharp-sighted with prudence; he will render the binary contrary to the monad. For only the ternary, which proceeds from unity and the binary, like a palindrome connects both in itself. But if the necessary utility of the [reason?] extends beyond the bounds of the proposed matter, then as often as needed let the paraphrases be numbered by minutes from the beginning of the day, until the minutes establish the degree in which night equals day. The face of this image knows perpetual silence, and does not fear the deceits of these blind men. It is extended to as great an abundance as you wish; it is varied without number.

Brief index, or table, of the things treated in the fourth book.

In the fourth book of the Polygraphia we consider the binary very much; when all obstacles have been removed, without the labor of difficulty, at first sight we reduce it to unity. Hence we use a circle here in great things, a line or point in the smallest. Nor does it matter if night exceeds day, or if light does not agree with darkness, because the circle receives no end, and emptiness does not admit fullness. For they are contraries: whenever they succeed one another, one is destroyed by the other. A singular mystery, leading the binary onward, returns in this fourth book of the Polygraphia, since the airy [unclear] itself, more composite than the old base, is never designated in anything other than a binary. But in that part the lightness of owls is always suspect to us in difficult matters. The construction of this matter makes paraphrases with infinite atoms.

Index, or table, of the things treated in the fifth book.

In the fifth book of the Polygraphia we have written in order, on two tables, the letters of the Latins which we Germans use; one of these is called direct, while the other is named reversed. We have placed dances beneath them, so that what we seek with labor in foreign things we may see in our own without difficulty. For besides those things that have been set down openly by us, there still lie hidden many secrets in the inner parts; through understanding them, the worker’s path to greater things is foretold, though they are by no means proposed to all. We have subjected writings to numbers, by which, according to our will, hidden things become manifest. Hence through the skillful operation of this book, all messages are delivered securely to the cabalists, although the mysteries are not free from suspicion of the glutton Bacchae. For every transposition of the form of signs produces a sigh in the beholder, although it brings no harm from the owl. But you, who shall have attained understanding of this work, will easily penetrate every transposition of letters among our Latins.

In the sixth book, which is the last book of our Polygraphy, after introducing a mental narration, we have set out in order almost all the minute details of the preceding signs and degrees from the foregoing matters, and with arithmetical distributions we have compressed the functions of the letters into the mystery of a cabalistic operation. One thing lies hidden here in the bark, and another is found in the common operation of the signs. For just as the spirit in the blood gives life to the human body, so the vigor hidden in the art commends the operation. Therefore whoever needs knowledge of this invention should open the eyes of his understanding, so that he may comprehend what is the property of each operation. For we desire all things to be pure for good men in such a way that, if it could be done, they would nevertheless never be made manifest to the wicked. The cause compelled us to fit letters of the Latins to numbers, lest, if we were too obscure, our mind and intention should be clear to no one. Yet that novelty, so that it should not become public without reasonable cause, had to be hidden mystically under unknown signs and marks of numbering. For evening shadows are always stronger by night than by day, and just as night, in its proper order, begins the day, so light shudders at the shadows. What nature denies, no one happily dares. We ask the reader not to condemn this laborious work of ours before he understands it, but, as a judge without rashness, to seek what it is, prudently removing the bark until he comes to the hidden kernel. The work is good and natural, and can be turned to good use or bad, according as the desire of each person’s will moves him. The sword is a good instrument; it is turned to good use whenever it is carried for defense without injury to one’s neighbor. But if it is unlawfully extended to the wounding of anyone, through abuse a good thing is degraded into evil. Therefore, so that the good may have something by which they may prudently provide for their affairs, the Polygraphy is written by us; and lest it furnish the wicked an opportunity for sinning, the kernel is hidden in the bark under various enigmas. He who is good does not misuse good for evil, but rather, if he can, turns evil into good.

What the three causes of this work of Polygraphy are, and at the same time its advantages.

We have undertaken the labor of the present work, both rare and difficult, for no other reason than to provide for the usefulness of those in need. I mean those in need not of food, not of drink, but of help in preserving secrets without danger. We therefore judge that it will be opportune if we briefly note the advantages and conveniences that can come to those who use these inventions of ours. For since in our household affairs we have no business such that we need these teachings for concealing secrets, we have labored assuredly for those whose empire had to be defended. The first advantage is that, when understanding of this work has been completed, it gives the needy man an easy way by which, through the skill of the art, you will make known the secret of your mind safely, secretly, and without any suspicion on the part of any observers, to one who knows, however widely the work may extend to any distances of places by regulated speech. What lies hidden in these things, the work of Steganography brings out; it requires neither letters nor a messenger to carry the secrets to the reader. It would be otherwise in matters admitting the light, according to the common custom of all our people.

Do not take the matter otherwise than it is. The second advantage is that, by the service of this work, in the space of a short time, a man ignorant of Latin speech, provided only that he [knows?] the letters

...read and write in his mother tongue, you will teach him, in the Latin language, as you wish, to write ornately or elegantly, and to conceal and hide all the secret mysteries of his will, and safely, secretly, and without suspicion to communicate very widely whatever has pleased one who knows the art. Again I warn you beforehand not to understand us otherwise than as having promised what we do promise.

The third benefit is that, in a few hours, you will teach a man ignorant of the Roman tongue not only what we promise, namely to write and read, but also to understand, if you prudently apply the duty of the office; this we have thought should not be [considered?] without reasonable cause. For the pupil of the new art will write in a language he had not known, Latin speech composed under regulated instruction, and he will understand and interpret it, if you order him, adequately word for word. Finally, this instruction can be extended to all the affairs and business of the world. If anyone wishes to know from me how these things can be done, he should first remember to show himself such that he deserves to receive it. For not all things are owed to everyone, but one man is to be preferred to another.

The fourth benefit is that, by extending the likeness of the thing received, all these matters can be extended into any language whatever, once the binary of the instruction has been reduced to unity. Yet not just any man at random can do this, but only he whom, with God going before by his special grace, art and nature have dignified.

The fifth benefit is that, by imitation of the likeness, we can communicate to one who knows the art the inventions of our knowledge, and whatever secrets of our mind, as abundantly as we wish, in many ways, very widely, by various methods which could not be written or noted by anyone else. Here is given a manifold speech without voice, through which safely, securely, very widely, with every suspicion removed, we will be able to indicate most fully to those who know the art all the conceptions of our mind, however difficult they may be. And this wondrous invention has innumerable advances, capable of all mysteries.

The sixth benefit is that, through understanding this work, you will be able to find any regulated metathesis or transposition of letters whatever, and nevertheless to form them in such a way that they serve only those who know the art, and absolutely no one else in the world. And there is great force in metathesis of that form, and at the same time of the operation, which has several modes and is varied in many ways.

The seventh benefit is that swine are not to be adorned with pearls, nor laden with precious jewels. All things are unseasonable that do not accord with the manners of the time.

of mortals upon whom they are thrust. Many most noble talents of men have existed in times not their own, and still more new ones are found almost daily in times not proper to them. What benefit did the wonderful invention of the nautical art bring to the excellent craftsman Bartholus under Pope Innocent VIII, which in a certain little book he promises for sale at one hundred thousand ducats, when neither the supreme pontiff himself, nor the Venetians, nor the Genoese, to whom he proposed that his thing be bought, deigned to come to terms with him even for a modest sum? For he promised that within thirty months, by his art, he could keep a ship unharmed in mid-sea, repair it when broken, and bring back from the deep, without danger, any things that had been [unclear]. But no one cared. Nor does it escape me that many, with Naso, have perished by their own genius. It is therefore better to set a limit to knowledge than, without fruit, to expose oneself to the hatred and detraction of many, for whom it is more familiar to despise any knowledge whatever than to have learned it.

The end of the preface is at hand, on the seventh day of April, in the year of the Lord's nativity 1508.

The First Book of the Polygraphia, to Maximilian, of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of [unclear], formerly of Sponheim.

There are twenty-four letters and signs of the Latin language, which, when set in order before the same number of syntactic words, most abundantly convey secrets throughout, at the wish of each person working in this art. The paraphrases, however, have been arranged artificially in such a way that they produce entirely Latin speech, if only one is taken from any given order. And it should be noted that, by reason of our German language, the twenty-fourth letter, the letter w, is assumed at the end of the alphabet, since all the rest perform service for both languages. We have placed the co-signifying terms in such order by this method that, whichever one you take from each line, once the full deduction has been made, agreement will remain. Yet circumspection is needed, so that from any line of the syntax you take only one, and that no single unit do injury to the pair. Care must also be taken that, whenever you approach the cabalistic operation, you first count all and each of the minutes of the night, and join them in due proportion to the degrees of the following day. But if, with the secret thus established, the minutes do not suffice for the degrees of the day to the end, the windy runner [unclear] must, by prudent counsel, be brought back to the archimeasurer.

Nor is it an obstacle if by chance the night falls back upon the beginning of the day, since a prudent operator in the art can, by voluntary addition, withdraw from the front by as much as he sees the night surpass the light of day. And this is to be understood of the individual chapters throughout the whole work of the Polygraphia. Yet we say that this consideration must be assigned to the unit, by which the pair may be certified, by the known little mark of return, lest it happen to go astray. From the monad, through the established rule, the pair will stand, and it becomes a monad. Nothing is placed here in vain; nothing is alleged without cause or idly. Therefore we necessarily admonish everyone who wishes to copy this work of our Polygraphia, whether in whole or in part, to take diligent care first of all that he not depart in any respect from our archetype, nor skip, neglect, or transpose any word whatever. For indeed, if he omits one letter or word in substantial matters, if he changes a word contrary to its nature, he has made the progress of the whole work useless. Therefore let him either copy it properly, or not copy it.

There follow the words of the first order with the minutes for the degrees.

a God; b most merciful; c pious; d most pious; e great; f exalted; g greatest; h best; i most wise; k invisible; l immortal; m eternal; n everlasting; o glorious; p most strong; q most holy; r incomprehensible; s omnipotent; t peaceable; v merciful; x most merciful; y all-powerful; z magnificent; 20 most excellent. A

a creating; b ruling; c preserving; d moderating; e governing; f ordering; g adorning; h embellishing; i establishing; k directing; l producing; m decorating; n strengthening; o illuminating; p beholding; q admonishing; r confirming; s guarding; t discerning; v distinguishing; x enlightening; y fabricating; z saving; 20 making. a the heavens; b heavenly things; c things above the heavens; d the world; e worldly things; f men; g human things; h angels; i angelic things; k the earth; l earthly things; m time; n temporal things; o an age; p age-lasting things; q all things; r everything; s the universe; t the orb; v the stars; x the sun; y stars; z life; 21 living things.

a by holy ones b by chosen ones c by beloved ones d by most holy ones e by just ones f by justified ones g by predestined ones h by angels i by archangels k by lovers l by worshippers m by friends n by apostles o by prophets p by disciples q by martyrs r by sanctified ones s by dominations t by beloved ones v by citizens x by servants y by attendants z by ministers 20 by confessors

A iii a from the heavens b from the heavenly places c from the super-heavenly places d for ever e perpetually f everlastingly g for ages of ages h for a holy age i for an age k in the kingdom of heaven l in the highest places m in the exalted places n in paradise o on Olympus p in the paradisal places q in the Olympian places r in splendors s in happiness t in forms of happiness v in glorious things x in honor y in magnificence z in perpetual light 2v in the heavenly homeland

a The Majesty b of the great c of the greatest d of the supreme e of the exalted f of the best g of the most illustrious h of the most holy i of the most powerful k of the wisest l of the strongest m of the gentlest n of the highest o of the most robust p of the omnipotent q of the all-powerful r of the everlasting s of the most glorious t of the ineffable v of the invisible x of the immortal y of the inaccessible z of the most eminent 2v of the most merciful

a of the creator b of the parent c of the savior d of the redeemer e of the beginning f of the founder g of the maker h of the maker i of the preserver k of the ruler l of the author m of the artificer n of the one ruling o of the dominator p of the king q of the one governing r of the emperor s of the one commanding t of the prince u of the mover x of the judge y of the liberator z of the governor 20 of the protector

A iv a by Christians b by worshippers of Christ c by the faithful d by believers e by the baptized f by the reborn g by the living h by mortals i by all k by us l by the good m by the just n always by the pious o everywhere by the holy p by the meek q by the sanctified r by the devout t by the frail v by those who love x by those who hope y by those who fall z by those who sin 20 by sinners

a sincerely a to be preached b sincerely b to be proclaimed as gospel c most sincerely c to be prayed to d devoutly d to be adored e most devoutly e to be entreated f humbly f to be worshipped g most humbly g to be recollected h fervently h to be remembered i most fervently i to be remembered again k ardently k to be thought upon l most ardently l to be thought upon again m most prudently m to be contemplated n prudently n to be invoked o wisely o to be honored p most cordially p to be glorified q cordially q to be blessed r affectionately r to be venerated s most affectionately s to be loved t reverently t to be cherished v most urgently v to be praised x most strongly x to be praised together y most constantly y to be extolled z cheerfully z to be exalted rv to be magnified

a by many b by very many c by very many d by several e by quite a few f by various g by diverse h by holy ones i by most holy ones k by sacred ones l by consecrated ones m by sacrosanct ones n by necessary ones o by very necessary ones p by useful ones q by very useful ones r by the best ones s by very good ones t by honorable ones v by manifest ones x by frequent ones y by very frequent ones z by continual ones rv by salutary ones

a by words b by teachings c by statutes d by institutions e by admonitions f by admonitions g by warnings h by inspirations i by doctrines k by sermons l by writings m by commands us n by persuasions us o by precepts p by counsels q by orders r by encouragements s by exhortations t by illuminations v by illustrations x by promises y by things promised z by examples rv by promptings

A v

a wretched b human beings c poor little wretches d pitiable e miserable f most unhappy g unhappy h perishable i unstable k fragile l weak m unclean n vain o most vain p abject q most abject r lost s unjust t wicked v stained x foolish y stupid z changeable 2v most weak

a human beings b little men c mortals d Christians e worshippers of Christ f orthodox g pilgrims h exiles i exiles k sinners l sinning m living n straying o travelers p destined to die q wandering r workers s hirelings t operators v sleeping x earth-born y and desolate z worldly 2v earthly

a imbues a present things b teaches b the world c visits c worldly things d admonishes d worldly things e warns e the age f forewarns f secular things g instructs g changeable things h commands h corruptible things i exhorts i vain things k exhorts k vanities l exhorts l earthly things m dissuades m carnal things because of ob n exhorts together n luxury o reminds o riches p taught p mortal things q educates q transient things r reminds r passing things s incites s lower things t stirs up t visible things v [unclear] v perishable things x provokes x pleasures y illuminates y riches z illustrates z honors rv invites rv the lowest things

We are glad that the end of the first book of our Polygraphy is at hand; by it, made readier for what remains, we judge that the powers of our talent must be tested. For newly invented things sometimes trouble the beginner, because he whom all follow has no one preceding him. The first beginning of any invention is more difficult; afterward, when it has been made firm, it brings greater confidence to the author. Therefore, completing the first book of our invention with the favor and help of God, we have divided the whole into 384 minute divisions, assigning to each, in order, as is seen, its proper grades of periphrases. And these form a quite beautiful Christian harmony: sixteen way-stations, with nine thousand two hundred phrases duly joined throughout. Nothing is lacking here for students of these inventions of ours, so that in mystical, secret, and hidden matters, even to be announced very remotely in the safest manner, they may have the fullest knowledge and ability.

All things that are contained in the circle of the art proceed from a point; their atoms constitute a circular line, straight by the multitude of light. Whatever is outside the line belongs, by common reckoning, to the day, not to the night. For night, always enclosed, never goes beyond the limits of the minute divisions of the paraphrases. Therefore, whenever you have crossed the straight line of the day and have not fulfilled the purpose of the nocturnal syntax, turn the head back to the tail; when a joining has been made, let there be a mutual bond of both. Arrange the shadow so that it does not confuse the sun by similarity of word. And do not fear shame if, in the first calculation, the day has not comprehended the shadow; rather, carefully consider the minute divisions of the lines of the day, count one with another, until the necessary proportion follows according to your wish. You will also be able to make a leap from the first into the second, knowing that in the first creation of days there was made, from evening and morning, one day. Therefore, when evening has been completed, bring the day back into the following one, and, when the sign has been given through the point, fix the mystery known at once to the binary and the monad.

But in order that you may be able to avoid this difficulty, distinguish the great revolutions of our whole circle by arithmetical degrees; where day is repeated for night, impose the mark of Archimedes upon the flying one, lest an untimely ternary block the return to unity for the binary. For for this reason we have set minute divisions before each grade by an artful invention, so that we might relieve the person working in these matters from the labor of counting the paraphrases. If you are industrious, diligent, and studious in these things which we have handed down as the principles of a new art, believe us: you will find greater things hidden than we have promised. Indeed, since many natural secrets are contained in these matters, know one thing, and not the last: that by the prudent operation of metatheleos, even [when you wish?], you will make one most skilled in this art ignorant, the seeing blind, the learned unskilled. If the false opinion of the Hebrews were true, our invention would give to each of the individual men of eighteen thousand worlds an individual way of safely and secretly writing and communicating very widely whatever secrets they wished in Latin.

The end of the first book of the Polygraphy is here, of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of the monastery of Saint James the Apostle at Würzburg, on the twelfth day of the month of February, in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 1508.

The second book of the Polygraphy of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Peapolis, of the Order of Saint Benedict, begins.

The human method of numbering attempts by art to imitate nature, which admits no reckoning of the monad. Therefore, although the instruction of the preceding book of Polygraphy, through extension and the metathesis of particulars, suffices, as it were, for the universals of this art in infinite progressions of number, nevertheless a definite consideration has moved us to join a second to the first.

There is in each a different condition of light, but night in both preserves inviolate the order of its course. The reader who is prudent, from our small discoveries, not polished quite to the rule, will easily be able, if he is strong in excellent talent, to discover greater and more polished things. Whatever visible thing is placed in the whole circle of the world still offers ready support to the ministry of our new art. Air, fire, water, earth, springs, rivers, trees, thickets, flowers, grasses, words, names, accident, substance, stones, sand, dung, filth, things, terms, honorable things, modest things, woods, metals, hard things, liquid things, existing things, non-existing things, history, fable, beasts, brute animals, human beings, draught-animals, each and all things that speech can express or the mind can think, provide the very broad field of our Polygraphy; they promise that the art, insofar as it can stand among mortals, is to be enlarged to infinity.

For just as unity, through the binary, generates the ternary as a perfect number in the quaternary, so the completion of this discovery, establishing its root through the quaternary in the twice-perfect binary, gives us an infinite number under the minute particulars of things and of the paraphrases of Polygraphy. For although among us all our things are terminable, yet very many things often occur which, because of the slowness of our understanding, seem infinite to us. Who will be able to count the drops of the sea? And who will penetrate the inscrutable heart of man? Just as a finite and circumscribable number can, by progression, be led into infinity, so the instruction of this art is enlarged into immensity by varied metathesis. Whatever is seen anywhere in the whole world is in all respects conformed to our instruction, nor is there anything known to us that is without mystery, if the method is understood by a master.

We, however, persuaded by reason, remain under the ministry of the binary, and briefly explain the smallest part of the whole. Nor is an occasion given us to raise our undertaking to weightier matters; if such an acceptable occasion is offered to us, we shall not refuse to make more excellent things manifest to those who desire them. For it is written: Where there is no hearing, do not ever pour out speech. Therefore, adding the second book of Polygraphy to the first, we keep the same form and method, placing three hundred and eight paraphrases in the light of day by simple progression, in honorable memory of the most chaste mother of God; if the time had been suitable, we could have given both more graceful things and, with sufficient expansive diffusion, broader things. But studious posterity will easily provide both: it will add brilliance to the matter and sufficient progress to the form. The first inventor of any art transmits greater things to posterity, because, since the beginnings of an art are hard and unfamiliar, no subtle discovery is found consummate from its origin.

From Peapolis, which is also Herbipolis, a city of the Eastern Franks, on the twelfth day of the month of February, in the year of the Lord 1508.

a of the risen [unclear] b untouched c most blessed d undefiled e unstained f most innocent g most splendid h most shining i most modest k most honorable l health-bringing m inviolate n of the blessed Virgin Mary o of holy Mary the Virgin p holy q consecrated r most holy s most chaste t most pure v most beautiful x most pious y most kindly z most serene 2v sweetest 2v gentlest B5

[People?] change, customs also vary, minds change, and garments vary; the simplicity of languages is altered, the ancient proper character of idioms is varied; nothing stable is found in human affairs. For there is change in all things; variety succeeds to simplicity of minds. Who will be able to bring this perpetual flux, so to speak, back to the concord of unity? For many times pass away, as Scripture says, and knowledge will be manifold. But the fact that we add a third book to the two preceding books of the Polygraphy has not lacked a special reason. For, since human wills are various, many methods are rightly given for honorable operations. In the former, night illuminates day; in the latter, however, day lacks light. There light leads shadow around in light; here, however, the blind man illuminates the blind, being and remaining sight without eyes, and serves to darkness what he does not possess. Here night clouds day with perpetual darkness, and, walking in darkness without light, furnishes guidance to the blind. These paraphrasmata serve all men throughout the world; in every language they transmit any secret safely, securely, and without danger to the cabalistic binary. Latin makes barbarians laugh; barbarism itself generates suspicion among Latins. Yet it matters nothing, or little, since however great the suspicion may have been, it will nonetheless contain every mystery in the utmost secrecy. Let the diligent operator recall to mind the rules and precepts that we have handed down, lest he labor uselessly and in vain for himself and for others. For understanding is needed; without it the usefulness of no art will stand. In a few words we have shown the path to the greatest things; with finite things we have given a method for infinite things. From what is given and received, greater things are easily prepared for friends. Reader, remember that the retrograde mark can be fastened in every place, until you attain the desired rest. Farewell. From Peapol, on the first day of March, in the year of the Lord 1508.

G

[Cipher table and cipher vocabulary follow, not translated.]

ꝝ baschos | ꝝv nuy | ꝝv camot | 1008 K iiij

a pasa b pase c pasi d pasa e pasu f pasan g pasin h pasun k pasum l pasal m pasel n pasil o pasol p paras q pars r passer s passir t pasor v pasur x pasai y pasci z pasij 2 a gomar b gomer c gomir d gomo[r] e gomur f gomasa g gomase h gomasi i gomaso k gomasu l gomal m gomel n gomil o gomol p gomul q gomat r gomet s gomit t gomot u gomut x gomai y gomei z gomij 3 a vadan b vade c vadi d vado e vadu f vadar g vader h vadur i vadas j vades k vadus l vadus m vades n vadus o vadus p vadus q vadus r vadus s vadus t vadus u vadus x vadus y vadus z vadus 1033 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056

What we promised at the beginning of the third book of our work, the Polygraphia, for obtaining before the inexperienced a shadowy likeness of the new gloss, we have sufficiently fulfilled by way of example, with an abridgment of labor. We entrusted night, safely serving secrets, to be led then by shadows as a periphrasis; we have inserted numbers in the order of four lines [unclear], adapted for the use of those who wish. There are three thousand one hundred fifty places of minutiae, having fixed degrees; and, if you wish, however many moments of the hours remain are infinite, for making secret, in every nation and language of the world, whatever secret matter may occur. The circle, arising linearly from a point, as often as night exceeds the image of light, as much as you wish: if there is need, you will be able to bring it back to the path by which you came. If much of night remains, bring back the tail of the dragon to the original tail-piece in the head. But let the binary be wholly assured to us concerning the known signs of unity. He who hungers much should labor much, so that he may have something to eat. Nor is it a matter of great labor to lead whither you wish that which advances of its own accord. Here, therefore, we set an end to the third book of our Polygraphia, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Gentle reader, farewell. From Peapolium, on the seventh day of the month of March, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ our Savior 1508, in the eleventh indiction.

Here is the end of the third book of the Polygraphia of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Peapolium, of the Order of Saint Benedict.

The fourth book of the Polygraphia of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of the monastery of Saint James the Greater, apostle, at Wurzburg, formerly of Sponheim, of the Order of Saint Benedict, begins.

[unclear]

The order of reasoning required that the fourth book of our Polygraphia be made different from the preceding ones in quality, invention, and ease, so that those wishing to share in the secrets of our matters may attain this not by one means but by various and different ones. We have extended the magpie, comprehensible by a very easy invention, so that night, always joined through the minutia to the monad in any order, may be recognized in the light of day. Here no difference is found between unity and the binary; nor will one wishing to perform the art need to have the instrument at hand, when, as the first things follow upon the last without a middle, the hidden mystery reveals itself. Hence the prudent, understanding man, experienced in the science, will at every time and place sufficiently perform the operation. The binary receives from unity, whence it produces the ternary. The first knowledge of the face of this cryptology is easy, after the moon has been illuminated by the sun, even at a single point. Yet it can also happen that an industrious gnostic may come forth without the guidance of a master. This, however, I think should be understood only in this book, but in none of the preceding ones. Concerning the following books, judgment will be given in its proper place. Among all the cabalistic methods of secrets which we have given up to the present, the procedure of this fourth book can more easily be extended to infinity. Therefore it suffices that I have handed down to those desiring more both the form and the reason of the example. The light of understanding easily penetrates all these things. I wrote at Peapolium, on the ninth day of March, in the year of the Lord 1508.

a saday b abray c scotay d adonay e semey f afrodey g agareny h chosay i risany k akolay l alphoy m amary n andrasy o dobry p sparalty q squinoty r archasy s aschry t stomay v husany x axiosy y cyprasy z azanay 2v iuualy a malachym b abelohym c ocreachym d adrohym e melochym f effrayment g agiachym h cherubym i hiarchym k akulym l elemoyn m ameloym n anthiachym o comarchymp arachym r tranesans osiarchyms t stuparchymt axiarymv synarchymy azariargyz guuesym harman ebaran charan oderan herman afalian aglasan thoran pileman okopan ameran andran poneran aporian squillan asaphan atenosanhuran axoran tyaran azaran huualan

a sarabar b abas̄ar c achar d adabar e helmar f afamar g agiadar h chomar i pisamar k akamar l eleasar m amosar n anadar o mosar p spodar q aquinar r croasar s asamar t ithamar v auenosar x examar y hyamar z azamar 2v suuelar a mason b abrason c icharon d adelon e meson f afirion g agiron h charon i pirafon k okaron l olueon m ameron n onalon o cormon p spayron q aquilon r prosopon s psalmon t athenon u curaton x examon y tyrison z ezafilon 2v duuelon a hamaym b abroym c achiozym d adoraym e heroym f afiarym g aglaym h chyroym i sibarym k akarym l almachym m emarchym n enarchym o comarchym p aponarym q aqualym r tritaym s osiachym t stenorym u cumachym x axiolym y synaxym z azarym 2v cuuerulym

a damas b abdias c acras d edelaa e menas f afrapas g agiras h choras i dimas k akias l alapas m omeras n anyras o poneras p vpupas q aquilas r atropas s asteras t athyras v cucufas x aximas y tyrifas z azarias ɔv ervanas a hara b abora c acora d adora e melora f efara g egera h theora i lipara k akomyra l glomera m ambꝛa n andria o morendia p spanedria q equancia r drõmãcia s asara t ethyria v cularia x axioma y myparia z ezaphꝛia ɔv orvepila a pai b abai c acelai d adonai e helai f efai g agai h thomai i rimai k akai l gladai m vmbrai n antai o morai p spatai q equai r aremai s asadai t athenai v culectai x axipani y rypai z azafai ɔv arvadai

With the demonstration of the possibility of our new invention having been shown briefly, and no less sufficiently, I do not think that I myself should be wearied any longer over the same matter on this occasion, since the method of the journey extends to infinity, if anyone should need an example for further matters. Nor do I by any means think it necessary to recall to memory the things that have been recited in the preceding sections, since a sharp reader, if he is studious, can also, with the Lord's help, discover the greater things that lie hidden in these. We have handed over the material, and at the same time the cause, to the wise student; if he wishes to use them prudently, by his own talent he will surpass ours. But whoever desires this paved road more beautiful in the shade should join hand and mind to talent, and himself make a path more beautifully adorned by paraphrase. Let him hold it fixed in memory, if these things delight anyone, that he must always remain within the prescribed circle; if he passes beyond it in any way, the whole operation vanishes uselessly. There are many names of men; indeed, there are almost infinite words for things, towns, cities, provinces, herbs, trees, stones, and verbs, all of which serve our purposes. From these it is clear that it is not impossible for a book of this kind to be made, if talent is present with diligence, which may surpass our inventions without limit. But the man of such dullness that he cannot understand these childish things of ours, when will he penetrate the subtler matters that remain? We put an end to the fourth book of the Polygraphia, to which we join the fifth in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is the end of the fourth book of the Polygraphia of Johannes Trithemius, abbot, on the fourteenth day of March, in the year 1508.

The fifth book of the Polygraphy of Johannes Trithemius, Abbot of Saint James the Apostle at Würzburg, begins its preface.

Those things which, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have arranged, however imperfectly, in the four preceding books for the completion of our Polygraphy, reasonably require that in the fifth book we briefly treat the remaining precepts and methods of this instruction which are left over. We shall therefore give in it a sufficiently concise method by metathesis, that is, the transposition of letters, by which a friend may safely, securely, and most secretly write to a friend whatever he wishes. We read that Caesar Augustus used this method of writing in secret matters. Although this method of communication is in many ways secure, nevertheless it is always regarded with suspicion by those who inspect it, because as soon as a transposition of letters is perceived, anyone who is curious at once suspects that something lies hidden beneath them.

There are, moreover, almost infinite methods of this invention; from these, for the necessary introduction, we have set out the following for the reader, reserving the rest to be investigated by his ingenuity. First, therefore, we have placed before him the canonical table of this craft, to which we have joined another, reversed. In these two tables the root and foundation of the aforementioned transposition is wholly set down, upon which the structure of the entire edifice is placed. For when these two tables have been properly known and understood, no transposition of letters will be able to remain hidden from one who works diligently. To these we have joined twenty-four alphabets in order, so that we might provide the reader with an abundance of ways of transposing letters. The use of these, according to one’s wish, consists in individual alphabets, or, if you prefer, also in all of them. If you have a secret correspondence with many people, distribute individual alphabets to individual acquaintances, but commit to memory what you have given to each one [unclear].

Let the first alphabet be entrusted to the first, the second to the second, the third to the third, and so let it be done consequently with the rest. But if, because of the multitude of affairs or of one’s household, the alphabets which we have marked out should not suffice for everything, or if some of them seem too open and manifest, we shall be able to introduce various new transpositions, whose number becomes very great, while the method of the secret always remains perpetually hidden. Let us give an example of this matter: let B be a, F be b, L be c, P be d, T be e, Z be f, E be g, M be h; let it be done thus consecutively through the whole usual alphabet, so that between any assumed letter three letters intervene idly and in transposed order. Afterward four, then five, more or fewer; yet so that the whole alphabet, as though revolved in a circle, comes together, no letter at all is omitted, but each one is placed in the same series for another in its own order.

In whatever way you write, you must know that the method itself is to be committed firmly either to letters or to memory, lest, having slipped through forgetfulness, you can no longer read what you yourself had written. For the transposition of letters can be varied in so many ways that, according to the estimation of human understanding, which, enclosed by temporal operation in a mortal body, does not properly grasp infinite things, an innumerable number will arise for a mortal man. Hence whoever wishes to have more methods of writing by metathesis, apart from our instruction, will easily achieve the result in his work if he is even a little ingenious and diligent. For the human intellect can accomplish very great things if it is aided by study and art. But he who despises small things will never attain to greater ones.

I know that there will be many who will mock these pursuits of ours as empty and childish; to them we give as an answer that we shall be altogether content provided they please those at whose urging they have been composed by us. The direct table follows.

Straight table of transposition.

[letter table]

In this canonical, or straight, table of letters, from our single usual alphabet of the Latin letters themselves, by change or transposition, you have as many alphabets as there are monograms in it throughout, namely twenty-four times twenty-four, which make in number 576; and multiplied again by the same number, they make a little less than fourteen thousand.

Table of reversed transposition.

[letter table]

In this second reversed table you have as many alphabets by transposition of letters as we also set down in the preceding straight one. For, as you see, under metathesis there are twenty-four toward the right; likewise as many toward the left; twenty-four downward, and twenty-four upward. These, multiplied by ninety-eight twenty-four times and reduced in the form of a cross to the four sides, make not fewer than 112 alphabets.

The same table expanded follows.

First figure of the expansion of the straight table.

a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q r s t u v x y z w a b c d e f g h j k l m n o p q

This is the first figure of the expansion of the straight table: five alphabets by metathesis, the letters transposed as is seen. For in the first alphabet b is taken for a, c is taken for b, and so on, as is clearer to one looking at it. In the second alphabet c is taken for a, in the third d, in the fourth e, in the fifth f, as the placement of the order shows.

The expansion is continued.

Second figure of the expansion of the straight table

Second figure of the expansion of the reversed table.

In this second figure of the expansion of the reversed table there are six alphabets in number. In the first, k; in the third, i; in the fifth, h, are not changed. Since the rule has produced this, it makes no difference, because amid so great a multitude of variation there will be no one, even the most skilled, who can weigh the constancy of a single mark or character. Continuation.

Third figure of the expansion of the reversed table.

| a n q | m p a l | a k a i | b b g e f d c h j o r u x t v w z y s q p o i k d b e c f g d e f b g h i k a b c d e f g h i k a b c |

In this third figure of the expansion of the reversed table there is nothing new in its kind, apart from [metametaphin], which are common to all in almost infinite degrees. The transposed alphabets are six. In the first t is eclipsed, in the same g; in the third s; in c, r and c; the rule teaches the reason for this matter. Continuation of the table.

Fourth figure of the expansion of the reversed table.

In this fourth figure of the expansion of the reversed table several errors of deficiency occur according to the canonical calculation of the letters. Since they can easily be corrected, I was unwilling to depart from the rule of the instruction. In the first, q and d; in the third, c; in the fifth, o and b, are not changed. Continuation of the table.

p

First table of anomalous expansion.

We do not expand the orchemata, being moved by a rational cause, because, since it ranges more widely in its progression, the immense labor has frightened the mind. We have also deliberately passed over unity, not assigning it a place; to set it before our inventions in due order we judge rash. For from those things which we have already shown by way of example, anyone who is fit in understanding will easily attain greater things. All things serve secrets.

Second table of anomalous expansion.

A 24 A^3 4 A 51 A 67 A 89 A 10 11 b 3 23 b^4 5 b 63 b 78 b 910 b 11 12 c 4 22 c^5 6 c 72 c 89 c 1011 c 12 13 d 5 21 d^6 7 d 84 d 910 d 1112 d 13 14 e 6 20 e^7 8 e 96 e 1011 e 1213 e 14 15 f 7 19 f 89 f 105 f 1112 f 1314 f 15 16 g 8 18 g^9 10 g 118 g 1213 g 1415 g 16 17 h 9 17 h^10 11 h 127 h 1314 h 1516 h 17 18 i 10 16 i 1112 i 1310 i 1415 i 1617 i 18 19 k 11 15 k^12 13 k 149 k 1516 k 1718 k 19 20 l 12 14 l^15 15 l 1617 l 1819 l 20 21 m 13 13 m^14 14 m 1516 m 1718 m 1920 m 21 22 n 14 12 n 1516 n 1712 n 1819 n 2021 n 22 23 o 15 11 o^16 16 o 1718 o 1819 o 2021 o 22 23 p 16 10 p^17 17 p 1819 p 2021 p 2223 p 24 25 q 17 9 q^18 18 q 1920 q 2021 q 2122 q 2324 q 25 26 r 18 8 r^19 20 r 2118 r 2223 r 2425 r 26 27 s 19 7 s^20 21 s 2223 s 2324 s 2526 s 27 28 t 20 6 t^21 22 t 2324 t 2526 t 2728 u 21 5 u^22 23 u 2425 u 2627 u 2728 u 29 30 x 22 4 x^23 24 x 2526 x 2627 x 2829 x 30 31 y 23 3 y^24 25 y 2627 y 2728 y 2930 y 31 32 z 24 2 z^25 26 z 2728 z 2829 z 3031 z 32 33 w 1 1 w^26 27 w 2829 w 2930 w 3132 w 33 34

Whoever wishes to observe the rule of the orchema will have an easy and ready method of writing, and likewise of reading, the things that are secret. But he who transgresses the norm of the art will have labor along with his wish.

In this figure we have placed, for each of the remaining six signs, individual alphabets by numbers, just as they are seen set beneath the Latin letters in order, so that anyone who wishes may more safely conceal his secrets by means of them.

We have, by God’s mercy, brought the sixth and last book of our Polygraphy to its close; in it, ending our discourse with the wandering stars, we give the reader advance warning on certain points.

First, whenever he uses the alphabet of any given [sign?], he should prudently attach it, for the sake of a double advantage. For by this excessive labor is removed from the friendly reader, and the secret will remain hidden, since anyone ignorant of the craft will suppose that a table written with numbers and marked beforehand with the characters of signs or planets pertains to the reckoning of astronomy, and will not at all suspect that any secret lies hidden. For that reason we have not taken up the official matter of the letters from unity, but from a distance, lest we give anyone any mark of suspicion. Nevertheless prudence must be used by writers, since a clever reader who is touched by suspicion of something hidden, if he discovers the function of one number, will easily calculate the whole alphabet.

Second, let anyone who desires to be a shrewd practitioner of this matter remember that whenever a letter is doubled in any word, as often happens, it should be written only once and marked above with a point. For example, I wish to write Ioannes from the alphabet of Aries: I do not double 18, which is n, but I write thus: 14. 19. 6. 13. 10. 23.; or abbas: 6 [unclear]. 6. 23.; Ioanes, abas, so that every mark of suspension may be removed. In similar cases, similar caution must be employed; for unless the practitioner is endowed with diligence and knows how to find greater things from small ones, he will not be fit to have these least things of ours disclosed to him.

Not all things are to be communicated indiscriminately to everyone, especially those whose use can be turned to good and evil. Moved reasonably by that consideration, we have plainly handed down many things in these six books of the Polygraphy to those wishing to know, but we have allowed far more secrets to lie hidden beneath manifest things. Finally, we have written out a key that unfolds the whole work, explaining how each metaphor is to be understood; nevertheless, by the advice of certain persons, we have ordered it to remain hidden at home, so that students may not lack material for exercising their memory, and the wicked may be deprived of the means of knowing those things which they are not willing to use well. There lie hidden in each step

...more mysteries; and the greater things you find from these, the greater things remain to be found. A way is prepared for beginners, in which, as they advance, it will not be difficult in the course of time to find many things, both rare and very great. Here one who did not know how will learn to write in Latin, and prudently to wrap all the mysteries of his will in a foreign speech. But that an unlearned man may be able to understand not only his own mysteries which he wraps up, but also open speech, of which until now he has always been ignorant, is a matter of no great labor, if the paraphrast has fully attained our intention in this volume. For beneath the bark lie hidden the kernels of our Steganographia, buried for good reason, lest they lie open to unworthy babblers. Finally, it had been worth the effort that one work should not prejudice the other, but that its own right should be distributed inviolate to each. Wearied after a long voyage, we here cast anchor in the deep under the name of JESUS CHRIST, savior of the faithful, on the twenty-first day of the month of March, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 1508, in the eleventh Roman indiction, at Paeapolis, the city of the East Franks, which they also call Würzburg and Herbipolis.

Here is the end of the sixth book of the Polygraphia of Johannes Trithemius, abbot at St. James in Würzburg, formerly of Sponheim, of the order of the divine father Benedict.

Printed at the cost and expense of the most upright bookseller Johannes Haselberg of Aia, of the diocese of Constance, in the year 1518, in the month of July.

Key to the Polygraphia of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of St. James of Herbipolis, formerly of Sponheim, of the order of Saint Benedict, of the observance of the fathers of Bursfelde.

With a privilege that it is not to be printed or sold by another for ten years, under penalty as stated in the letters.

Johannes Trithemius.

Preface to the Explanation of the Whole Work of the Polygraphia of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Paeopolis, that is, Würzburg, at St. James.

No one who has read these things, as I trust, will judge me either proud or superfluous, because I myself have commented on the Polygraphia recently composed by me, especially if he has been able to weigh precisely what cause induced us to speak obscurely. For whatever can do harm when made public had reasonably to be hidden in mystical speech. But the subject which we treat in the Polygraphia is, for the advantage of the commonwealth among good men, very good, useful, and honorable; and for this reason, persuaded by a reasonable cause, we wrote it, so that by its service we might render good men safe and secure from the investigation of the wicked in communicating their secrets to one another. But lest an occasion of deceiving the simpler and less cautious in their judgment of things be offered to wicked and perverse men, who very often abuse even the inventions of the good, we handed down in it mystical or hidden modes of writing, and covered the truth hidden in the marrow with certain coverings of figures. Yet we do not in the least doubt that any industrious man, desirous of these things, will easily grasp everything, if he applies even moderate perseverance in searching them out. For the things I have handed down are neither so difficult nor wrapped in such great mysteries that they cannot be thoroughly penetrated by a studious man. For everywhere we have so tempered the enigmas of our words that they may easily be passable to learned and studious men, while nevertheless remaining inaccessible to lazy men of darkness. But after it pleased us to offer the work of the Polygraphia itself, dedicated, to the most serene and unconquered Caesar of the Romans, Maximilian, ever august emperor of the world, I judged that it would be worthwhile if I made it clear with brief and few interpretations.

and plain, lest the mind of the sacred Majesty, which is daily stretched by many affairs and cares, be drawn away from the understanding of it by the obscurity of mysteries. For, unless my opinion deceives me, the work will be the more welcome and useful to his Majesty the briefer and clearer it is. First, therefore, by the Lord’s bounty, we shall briefly explain the meaning of our purpose, which is contained in the prologue wrapped in various riddles; then, through the individual books of the Polygraphy, we shall set forth succinctly, to the powers of our talent, the modes of working, the rules, cautions, and individual differences, in order, as far as remains necessary.

All these things, so that they may the more quickly become accessible to those who desire to know them, we shall show in sequence by examples, and we shall be as brief as the subject and reason permit.

Key to the Explanation of the Polygraphy of Johannes Trithemius, Abbot of [Peapolis?].

Exposition on the Prologue.

Our whole intention in the entire work of the Polygraphy turns upon this purpose: that we should hand down certain methods of writing secretly, by which kings and princes, nobles and commoners, priests and laymen, learned and unlearned alike, may secretly, safely, and without any suspicion of a hidden secret, by the service of letters, announce to one another and to any friends, even those at a great distance from one another, whatever conception of their minds may be needed, and as often as needed. And lest we seem to have attempted this either first or alone, we forewarn the reader that many of the ancients long ago, especially tyrants, princes, and kings, moved by similar consideration, devised for themselves familiar and various methods and rules of writing, by which they themselves attempted in particular what we have promised universally in our Polygraphy. From their number, for the sake of an example of the proposed matter, we first introduced Caesar Augustus, whose hidden mode of writing take as plainly thus.

He changed the breathings of the conceived voice from clear signs into obscure ones; by a certain fine invention of metathesis, by [unclear], he makes their barbarousness, though resisting the vows, conform to his command. That is: the great Caesar Augustus, so that he might write secretly and safely what he wished, changed the letters of the alphabet by varied transposition, so that he put b for a, c for b, and so consequently with each one. And so that the writing, being more twisted, might remain more secret, he transposed the letters at his pleasure sideways and lengthwise to whatever distance of order, number, and place.

Mystery. And that deceptive order, as though perpetual, subject to the will and to the reckoning of time, although it keeps messengers safe on the road from the assault of [unclear], nevertheless, since it has no regulated limits, makes all who meet them anxious with suspicion of a hidden matter.

Explanation. Although no one can easily comprehend with the understanding the hidden mystery lying beneath the transposition of the letters, nevertheless this writing makes those into whose hands it comes suspicious about the hiding-place of the matter enclosed within.

Mystery. That Archimedes of Syracuse, easily the foremost of mathematicians, made a white bird, suitable to his instructions, naked by head and feet, and the rest.

Explanation. Archimedes had two little rods of one length and thickness planed, round or square, of which he kept one for himself and entrusted the other to his absent friend. And whenever either wished to write something rather secret to the other, he wrapped a white bird, that is, a sheet of papyrus, of small width but of the length of the doubled rod, around the wood, and tied it below and above with wax. Afterwards he wrote on the sheet, continuously from the sides joined artfully together into a mass, whatever he wished; then he loosened the sheet from the rod, and immediately there appeared such a distance between the letters that not even one word cohered with another. He turned the sheet, and when he wished he wrote to himself on the other side. Nor was there anyone ignorant of this device who could have investigated [unclear]. But the man who had the other rod, when he had received the sheet, fastened it on and recalled the letters into their former order.

Mystery. Marcus Tullius Cicero, eloquent orator of the Romans, using talent and art, changed the little elements of phrase into signs, and the rest.

Explanation. He wrote a book of signs for his son, which the blessed martyr Cyprian afterwards enlarged for the use of Christians, namely in the manner of a dictionary

…where, according to order, are placed first the characters or notes, and after them the words designated by the same characters, so that any word is signified by a note prefixed to it. With these notes or characters we once saw an entire Latin psalter, beautifully written, in the library of the greater church of Strasbourg; to which some judge of matters, ignorant, had prefixed on the outside a title such as this: "A Psalter in the Armenian tongue." But he erred, since it ought rather to have been written thus: "A Latin Psalter written in Tullian [Tironian] characters." For each character represents one entire Latin word. Nor does the estimation deceive me, since I have by me, written whole in an old volume, the very dictionary of Cicero, emended by Saint Cyprian—incorrupt—which I have nowhere seen elsewhere. And so great is the abundance of notes or characters, with the words subjoined to them, that they altogether suffice for writing in the Latin tongue whatever you wish.

Mystery. Pharamund, the forty-third [king] from Marcomer, king of the Franks, when in the year of the Lord's nativity 424 he powerfully entered the borders of the Gauls, etc. Explanation. The kings of the Franks, from the time when they went out from the Scythian borders, in the year 430 before Christ's nativity, with their people to the mouths of the Rhine—where now Guelderland sits—waged continual war with the Gauls for nearly nine hundred years, and at last violently made them subject [to themselves], as we wrote in the first volume of our annals. Of these [kings], the aforesaid king Pharamund, that he might safely send messengers through the kingdom, devised new letters proper to himself, which no one could understand without his voluntary instruction. And he used not one alphabet only, nor few, but many new alphabets. Mystery. Clodius the Long-haired, son of Pharamund, and after him king of the Franks, who subjugated all Gaul to himself, the Romans being destroyed whom he found in it, used [the cipher-arts] of his father's invention in secret writings. Explanation. This king devised proper and new alphabets, and gave single [ones] to each of his dukes, and retained the knowledge with himself alone. Mystery. Charles by name the Great, the sixty-third king of the Franks, who first of the Franks bore the diadem of the Roman empire, etc. Explanation. He is read to have been born the elder son of king Pippin, duke of Brabant, in the county of Namur, bordering on the Liège-men—although some report him born in the village of Ingelheim, not far from Mainz—[and] he too invented various modes of writing, and, Nanno the grammarian ministering [his] support, devised diverse alphabets, by which he communicated secrets, each in a singular manner, to the several prefects of the kingdom. Mystery. The Normans, once gone out from the borders of Gothia, when they devastated Gaul with cruel invasion, having called owls from Greece, prepared a safe hiding-place for their secrets, etc. Explanation. The Normans, ranging through Gaul (Bede the monk in England testifying), that they might safely write their secrets among themselves, substituted Greek numeral [letters] for the Latin letters, from a, the first, up to the four-and-twentieth, [with] a point such as w or gu, according to the custom of the Gauls. But this mode of writing is altogether most beautiful, in which all the letters are Greek, and according to the Pelasgian order of numbering designate our Latin [letters]: as a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, d = 4, e = 5, f = 6, g = 7, and so consequently up to w, which is 24. This writing neither a Greek will understand, nor a Latin, unless he has first learned the manner of the industrious art. Mystery. Our Bede, a monk in England, not ignorant of what the Normans did, described many [things] like these of the ancients' inventions, by which they made an obscure way lucid through mysteries. He himself [described] arthrology [finger-counting], etc. Explanation. This Bede the monk, in his little book on the inventions of the ancients, recounted many various modes of secretly writing and noting, by which they safely announced their secrets to friends, and spoke without voice to those present. He first of all committed arthrology [and] dactylology [finger-speech] to letters, by the use of which the one most securely discloses to the other whatever secret he wishes—which no one else standing by will note, and much less understand. That this very [thing] can be done in many other ways, Bede himself taught; concerning which, since we have written nothing in the Polygraphy, we here deservedly refuse to say more. A proper place for these very arduous matters we long ago assigned in the Steganography, which we do not yet think to publish. And who could express all the modes of the ancients' secret writing? For some had as familiars, in the ministry of the aforesaid art, "owls" [bubones] called Philophoti [light-lovers], others Mysophoti [light-haters], others called both into practice by [the] art; again others transposed the known letters of the common alphabet; others, under the guise of barbarians, devised proper characters for themselves.

others used the service of visible letters, writing with minium or with common ink, while others formed invisible characters at their own will, at a nod. The methods of visible characters for secret writing are exceedingly many, and altogether innumerable; to make mention of them all is neither our wish nor within our power. Of invisible characters, however, there are three kinds more commonly used among mortals today. The first is called Dermatic, by which a certain artificial writing is made on the backs of messengers, visible only by the washing of a certain fluid; no one can penetrate it who does not know the secret of the art. The second is called Hyphasmatic, by which one writes on cloth with certain substances; when dried, it cannot be seen at all until, moistened in cold water, it is perceived. The third kind is named Alleotic; it is manifold and varied, both in form and in material, and has almost innumerable methods of writing secretly. Its writing is made on paper or without paper, with [unclear], with [unclear], and with various other things. Letters likewise are written in various ways and hidden in places, as under [unclear], under [unclear], in [unclear], in [unclear], in [unclear], [unclear], in [unclear], in [unclear], and in other almost infinite things of the same sort. But because none of these things at this time serves our purpose, we must therefore hasten to those things which reason requires. There is another kind, Dactiletron, not of writing, however, but of signs, by which, in very subtle ways, one can communicate to another the conception of his mind. This itself is varied by so many differences that there is no one in the world who could enumerate all the species of so great a mystery. By the principal method, together with many others descending from it, one may, by art, while sitting at table or in any other place, securely and most safely communicate whatever one wishes to a person who knows the art, without anyone’s suspicion. Finally, how without letters you may disclose the secret of your mind to one absent, even when the very person who performs the office of messenger does not know it, remains written among the inventions of steganography. For indeed, since kings and princes encounter many affairs, knowledge of which they sometimes do not trust to give safely enough by customary letters to their deputies far away, it will be worthwhile for each of them to have some special methods of writing and announcing, by which they may most safely make their secrets known to friends, especially in these times, in which, with license to sin prevailing, nowhere in the world is secure faith found.

Messengers of princes are seized everywhere by savage robbers; they are plundered, beaten, and for the most part killed. Nor do the impious robbers spare even the letters of kings, closed and sealed with rings. Therefore it would be necessary for your commonwealth, O most glorious Emperor Maximilian, that you put on the skin of Hercules and brandish the club in your hands, and purge the world committed to you by God of these savage monsters. There will never be peace in the kingdom unless the [unclear] are removed from the midst. He who disturbs the peace of the kingdom shows himself to be the king’s enemy. These are the robbers who beset the roads of travelers and seize others’ property; the earth is full of them today, and nowhere is the road safe for those who walk.

Brief Explanation of Those Things Which Seem More Obscure in the First Book of the Polygraphia

Although nothing obscure is contained in the first book of the Polygraphia, nevertheless, lest its composition perhaps seem profound to simpler readers, we briefly explain those things which are thought more difficult. We have distributed the words of the Latin language, in order, more than nine thousand of them, under almost four hundred alphabets, in such a sequence that if from each alphabet only one word after another is taken from the beginning to the end, cohering mutually with one another they will produce a fitting Latin discourse. For it will be a very suitable method of writing most secretly whatever we wish, since each word represents the letter placed before it at the head. Nor should it trouble you, reader, that a multitude of words in the open contains a brief meaning in secret, since in this childish arrangement of ours there lies hidden a higher method of writing whatever you wish, much more broadly and much more secretly, which public reason has forbidden us to make plain to all. But whoever is endowed with talent and applies the necessary powers to inquiry will find, hidden in these teachings, subtler things wonderfully unknown before; he will plainly understand wonders. Nevertheless this suitable method of writing will suffice for all things, since the narration, though repeated so many times, is varied. For, as we said, from the first alphabet you take one word, and from the second likewise one, thus

successively one from each, and one from those interposed outside the ordered line, up to the period or the end of the book, and a Latin discourse sufficiently fitting will arise for you. But care must be taken that at one time and all at once no more than one word be taken from one alphabet, and that the writer, through negligence or excessive haste, not skip over some alphabet and confuse the order of the narrative. By day understand the open narrative, but by night the hidden, secret one, which should not be very long but brief. The examples that follow in the text, concerning the invisible soul and the body that is seen, pertain to both narratives, the hidden and the manifest. As often as “the leaf is moved by the wind,” and the rest, we advise that you count the secret narrative with reference to the open one, so that both may end together at the close of each period. But if anything should remain over from the secret matter, let it be enlarged with such moderation that both narratives end at one point, lest a confusion of eclipse be produced. The remaining points that follow in the first lesson of the explanation of the Polygraphy are all implicitly referred to the things we have said. It must also be noted that under the order of the alphabets no word is vacant, but each represents the letter set before it at the head. So that the reader may not lack full knowledge of this matter, let us explain the sense by an example. Let us suppose the case that a worthless man asks, through you, to be advanced with some friend of yours; but you, in order to cut off importunate requests and yet not promote an unworthy man, determine to write more secretly to your friend through the petitioner himself, so that he may not understand: “Beware of that fellow, because he is a thief, a most wicked scoundrel.” Go to the first alphabet and write the word Conditor, which signifies C; in the second, clemens, which [unclear]; in the third, discernens, which represents [unclear]; in the fourth, mundana, signifies e. Now you have, in the hidden narrative, “beware.” Proceed consequently also through the other alphabets, [unclear] such a discourse: “The gracious Creator, discerning worldly things, may he impart seraphic pleasantness to those who ask, with all his saints in heaven, amen. The gentleness of the most glorious prince, everywhere reverently to be remembered by the saints, [unclear] by the best precepts us, most abject, [unclear] of the director of good things, to abandon, to await with every affection the glory of perpetual rest [unclear]. Therefore, O vain mockers, receive with instruction, [so that?] you may be able to enter the most blessed rejoicings of the archangels of the orthodox rewarder, most blessed in comeliness. Therefore flee back from the foulest honors of this pilgrimage, since you are most holily about to enter the most blessed delights of the kindly savior of the ages.” In this foregoing public narrative there is contained this sentence lying hidden in secret, namely: “Beware of that man, because he is a thief and a wicked, most vile fellow; but be silent, I pray.” Proceed in the same order as long as it is in all other cases whatsoever, and one must begin from the head as often as necessary, until you have enclosed the hidden narrative of your mystery openly. But the words that are placed outside the alphabetical order designate no letter, nor do they serve the hidden narrative, but they have been interposed because of a lack of synonyms, so that the sequence of the Latin discourse might be completed. For we were not always able to have so many words with the same signification, especially among pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections, that in place of the twenty-four wandering letters we could have made an alphabet, as is clearly evident after the eighth alphabet, where we placed two words outside the order, lest we leave the discourse defective. For thus we placed: “With all.” Thus: “When you live.” Of these the writer may take the two he wishes, so that the Latin discourse may be completed. Let him do likewise in the other cases, whenever he finds similar ones. We have adopted double w on account of our native speech, since we frequently need it in our German language. For he who is ignorant of the Latin language may write his hidden secret in German under a Latin discourse without any difficulty.

Now follow the rules or cautions to be observed in the operation of this book.

The first rule or caution warns you that the secret of your mind which you wish to announce to an absent friend, one who knows the art and has the book of Polygraphy, you should write as diligently as you can on a slip of paper, in the Latin language or in German, or in any other language you wish, provided it can be comprised in Roman letters. Then

[unclear] to have separate ones. And thus they themselves will possess all the methods of writing, and none of the subjects will understand another’s method. For the variable methods of writing more secretly in this art are infinite.

Thirteenth, it should be noted that, to stop the mouths of those who speak unjustly, we show the truth of this new invention of ours to be possible by placing the words in the alphabets of the first book so that they cohere with one another, and in the manner of an exhortation and supplication offered to God they produce a fitting and Latin prayer. Under its narrative we can conceal whatever secrets occur to us, and write in such a way to a friend skilled in the art that, if all the men in the whole world were to come together into one place, they would never be able to find the secret lying hidden beneath the open discourse, provided it has been arranged correctly.

Fourteenth, it should be known that in this very invention of our Polygraphy there still lie hidden certain things far better than those written above, namely how you will be able, in a few days, not to say hours, to instruct one ignorant of the Latin language so that he knows how to write, read, speak, and understand Latin, not indeed all things universally, but in a certain manner whatever necessary thing may occur to him on any subject in his affairs. Likewise, how you may make known to your friend far absent, and knowing the practice of the art, all the conceptions of your mind safely, securely, and most secretly, without writings and without the messenger’s knowledge, sometimes even naturally without a messenger and without any superstition, danger, or fear. But reason has moved us that these things remain buried, hidden with the rest in their own concealment, since it neither pleases me nor is at all expedient to cast precious stones, once found, away, and to accomplish difficult things without the fruit of gratitude. Finally, there lie hidden beneath these no small mysteries of subtlety concerning medicines, herbs, plants, precious stones, rivers, the members of the human body, brute animals, saints, nations, cosmography, astronomy and the seven liberal arts, also concerning all these things that are held in human use, and concerning the universal world, both of visible and invisible things. And lest we be more lengthy than is right: all things that are in the world, through the enlargement of demonstrated likeness, serve the mystical teaching of the art of Polygraphy.

Fifteenth, note that all these things which we have transmitted as discovered in the Polygraphy are certain small introductions in comparison with those which still remain to be discovered and written in this same faculty; concerning these we pass over in silence, lest we seem to boast vainly. For we have given to those endowed with talent an occasion for discovering greater things than we have either written or perhaps have been able to discover. Let him who can add, for the completion of this invention, the things which he knows to be useful; but let him who cannot do so not rashly judge things he does not understand.

An explanation of those things which seemed rather obscure in the second book of the Polygraphy.

In the second book of the Polygraphy, apart from the order and sequence of the words, nothing new is handed down from the first, and for that reason there will be one and the same method of working in both. All the things which we said in the first book had to be observed, we carefully advise must also be observed in the second. Only in the narrative of the prayer is a manifest difference seen to have arisen, since the former is composed concerning our Lord, the Son of God, whereas this one is raised to his mother, the ever-untouched Virgin. In the second book, moreover, three hundred and eight alphabets are set in order before the words, under different subjects. For from the beginning the narrative of the discourse is directed to that Lady of ours; afterwards the Lord’s Prayer is expanded under twenty-four alphabets; then the angelic salutation is appended; consequently the Salve Regina; and last a brief prayer concerning Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, parent of God. In all books of the Polygraphy one must beware lest a single word be duplicated in any alphabetical order, that is, lest it be placed twice, or lest any be omitted, because it would make great confusion for the reader. Therefore one must take the greatest care that the copies be in every respect emended and corrected exactly, lest you fall into error while writing. But if, through the negligence of the scribe or the carelessness of the printer, you find some word duplicated under one alphabet, erase the last one and put in its place another suitable word which has not already been in the same alphabet. Know also that these two books of our Polygraphy sufficiently serve the promised operation; through them you may not only write most safely and securely to friends whatever you wish at any time

[unclear] of the fabricated discourse to the end of the book, the secret of your mind not yet completed, you should begin again from the beginning, and do this as often as will be necessary. Nevertheless, each person will be able, at his own discretion, to change, alter, improve these words of ours, and add more, yet in such a way that he avoids a sequence of sound breaking out disgracefully into words.

Explanation of the fourth book of our Polygraphia.

In the fourth book of the Polygraphia, in similar fashion, we have placed words fabricated by us in alphabetical order, but in one thing alone we deliberately differ from the preceding book. For in the preceding book the words contain no property in themselves other than that they represent the letters set before them at the head. But in the fourth book, which we now have in hand, each word contains its own force, and nevertheless designates the letters placed before it. Within it has what they show without, because the second letter of each word always serves the hidden mystery, which we shall make plain by the following example. Ecorach banasar dulay semalas, chorion suriel anephor schabarbas, busarat uimalo tropon tumelech amasar. For understanding the mystery of this, take only the second letter from each word, and you will find this hidden meaning: Beware this man. For the second letter in Ecorach is c, in banasar a, in dulay u, in semalas e. Join these four letters and they will make this word: Caue. And so one should proceed in the rest up to the end of the book; and if any hidden mystery remains to be written, one should return to the beginning as often as necessary, until the secret has been completed in full. In this very secret manner of writing, if someone has been practiced by long use, he does not need the book, but will easily compose on the spot words suited to his purpose. But one who is less practiced in composition necessarily requires a copy of the book from which he may write. The reader will not need a copy of the volume, since without the book, by means of the second letters everywhere, he can easily find the hidden secret. Yet in great, difficult, or dangerous matters, this manner of writing will not be trusted with sufficient safety, because by the diligence of a skilled man the hidden mystery could be discovered by chance. This manner of writing can also be changed by an intelligent man, so that the signifying letters are placed in the third or fourth position of the word, with the words altered.

Brief explanation for the fifth book of our Polygraphia.

[unclear]

In the fifth book of the Polygraphia we have handed down various modes of writing secretly through the transposition of common letters, arranged in such a coordination that under their covering we shall be able safely to write and report everything to an absent friend. Now, to speak in our customary manner, the progression of the transposition of letters is almost infinite, since innumerable things arise from one alphabet by metathesis. First we have described a straight table containing twenty-four alphabets; through understanding it, as many alphabets will be able to be composed as there are stars numbered in the firmament of heaven. For as many letters as there are in that table, so many times, by the art, hundreds of thousands of alphabets arise in order. After this we distribute a reversed table, which will arise into another as often as you change the first letter at the head. The first letter in the straight table is b, in the reversed one z. As often as you put any other varied letter in their place, so often you will find a table new in every respect, and so on to infinity. Then we expand the first straight table, placing at the head of each transposed black letter, in red, the letter that it represents, so that we might provide the reader with an easier method of writing. This is the method of writing: from the first black alphabet take one letter of the hidden sentence, from the second another, from the third a third, and so in succession up to the end. When you have reached it, remember to return as often as necessary to the first order, until by concealment you have completed the secret mystery of your mind. But so that you may see the order, let us set down an example. Hxpf gfbmcʒ fucib gmbt gxhsr ege rbd qopma uwu. wfxegk ak.tnr qxyx. Of this mystical discourse the mean

[unclear] is: Beware this man, because he is evil, a thief, a deceiver, a liar, and wicked. You now see, reader, what a remarkable transposition of the letters of the alphabet this table produces, since there is no one who, without knowledge of it, could penetrate this secret. For this manner of writing surpasses every common transposition of letters, since each letter is always changed from one series of the alphabet into another. From the reversed table also, which we have set out in order with a similar distribution, let us place such an example by way of introduction: Rdkt, st[unclear]nyb, tevqj, sn[unclear]f, fdrgh, vfd. Its hidden meaning is this: Beware this man, because he is evil. And note that, under the example of the direct table already given, we have drawn the hidden series from the beginning through the whole of it, and then, by continuing in like manner through the reversed table, we again make a circle, as you see, to the beginning of the direct table. Hence it must be considered that one series of writing can be drawn through both tables, just as we have already done in the demonstration of the first example; or, if you prefer, through one only, as we have shown sufficiently in the reversed table. Nor will it cause difficulty for the reader to whom you send your hidden message, for he will easily understand everything if he has had even a little experience in the art. But the strongest instruction, which increases knowledge, is practice frequently repeated in any art.

After the setting out of the tables, certain orchemata follow, in which there is not only a transposition of all the letters, but also an ordered leaping of one over another. For orchema in Greek is called transilitio, “leaping across,” in Latin. And first, indeed, we marked the leap of the letters in the expanded form; afterward we reduced it into an orchema. In the operation of this orchema there is a remarkable leap. In it there are twenty-four alphabets. In the first no letter intervenes. In the second, one. In the third, two. In the fourth, three. In the fifth, four. In the sixth, five. In the seventh, six. In the eighth, seven. In the ninth, nine. Finally in the eleventh, ten, and so consequently up to the twenty-fourth alphabet, in which twenty-three letters intervene; afterward a return of likeness is made to the beginning. But the manner of writing by orchemata for the mystery is similar to that observed in the tables of transposition of letters: namely, that one who is about to write according to the rule of the orchema should take from each alphabet only one black letter, which the writing in red shows from the head. For understanding this, let us give an example: Prdh. ifyqyn. bdyen. zhkt. sxsol. inq. Its meaning is this: Beware this man, because he is evil.

When in writing you have come to the end of the orchemata, and the begun secret of your heart has not yet been completed, you must know that you are to return to the beginning as often as needed, until the mystery has been completed through everything. And know that from one orchema of letters as many alphabets are composed as an inquirer may have wished, however studiously, to have. Finally, this method of writing by orchemata, that is, by leapings-across and leaps, is the safest of all, because the transposition of the letters arises not uniform but varied in many ways. And it should be noted that a true and perfect knowledge of the little tables and the orchemata, if you are industrious and studious, will give you understanding of all writings that are written in any manner by transposition of letters. And it is a great secret, which few have known, that all meanings hidden in any transposition of letters whatever can be discovered.

Brief Explanation of the Sixth and Last Book of the Polygraphy.

In the sixth and last book of the Polygraphy we have assembled certain characters of the ancients, which they used in place of letters, so that, if anyone wishes to take from it an alphabet of his own for himself, he may be able to do so, although one moderately skilled may, if he wishes, devise for himself much more beautiful characters. All the synthemata of this book are sufficiently open and clear, and therefore need no explanation, or only a brief one. Yet those which stand forth as newly invented by us require a definite declaration, lest perhaps they seem to have been set down without reason. First of all, we made all the letters of the Latins numerical, after the custom of the Hebrews and the Greeks, thinking it shameful for us if we should be found inferior to them in this respect. For what is it that we have doubled certain letters so that they might suffice for an infinite number, when the Jews, compelled long ago by the same necessity, did this very thing? And the Greeks, because of a lack of letters, admitted certain signs into number, since they could not double letters. But we, because we are pressed by an equal lack of letters, [unclear] for et; nor does it matter whether it is written thus, et, or thus, &, provided it represents six in number. But we have added another, 9, which our people, when abbreviating, [unclear].

they write it for con and com indifferently; here, in the order of numbers, it represents six hundred. Moreover, by the same necessity we have doubled two letters, namely r, z, s, s; of these, r signifies ninety, while curved z signifies one hundred, long s two hundred, and closed s three hundred. Further, w, born as a double letter, which for this reason, by the usage of the German tongue, we have placed in the order of the alphabet, represents the last letter, in the series of numbers, one thousand.

Let us set down a tabular example of this new invention of ours for the reckoning of numbers, so that anyone who wishes to know the method may have a definite proof before his eyes. For what has always been easy for the Hebrews and Greeks will not be impossible for us. The table of numbers follows.

[unclear table of numbers: A, b, c, d, e, f, g, &, vj; j, tij, iij, iiij, r, s, wiij, x, y, z, lxx; xxx, wz, xxx, dcccc, vij; cccc, wx, xxx, dccc, vij; dcc, xl, xl, dcccc, vij; wz, xx; dccc, L ...]

We have sufficiently shown the method of numbering by Latin letters, after the manner of the Hebrews and Greeks; we have reasonably inserted it here by way of digression, although it is also found earlier in the sixth book. But by the fact that, as we proceed, we have here concluded our numbering at thirty times one hundred thousand, we plainly declare that it can be extended to infinity. If anyone dislikes this method of numbers, he will easily be able to devise a better one. Also, in imitation of the Northmen, from the aforesaid numeral letters we have arranged a new alphabet, by means of which you will be able safely to write and announce to an absent friend whatever secret you wish. Indeed, this method of writing is so secret, and so new, never seen or heard before us, that it seems to me utterly impossible that it can be understood by anyone without the service of a teacher. But now let us set down its alphabet.

a a b b c c d d e e f f g g h h i i j j k k l l m m n n o o p p q q r r s s t t u u v v x x y y z z C ij

Behold, you now have here an alphabet from Roman numeral letters, in imitation of the Northmen, with which you will be able most safely to write and announce to an absent friend whatever you wish; and no one will be able to penetrate your hidden secret except him who knows the secret of the art. For all who see the writing will suppose that the letters have been transposed, and they will labor in vain in calculating them. Let us set down an example: Iaaibid ifeib, ieifeigeiccbkib, cakcebhid, id et amp;kahk, gidsbid, cigib, iceigihg ibkgig.&kif, iaiahibifid,ibeicdaka.eib.ieiei et amp;kaib. The hidden meaning of this writing is as follows: Beware of the bearer of these presents, because the man is very wicked, a thief, a robber, a liar, and worthless. From the demonstration of this example it is easily given to be understood how safe and secure this method of writing is universally in every language known to the writer, and in every cause or business, however difficult, secret, great, or lengthy. Nor do I think there is any man living in the world who, by his own ingenuity and without a teacher, could read this very writing. For all who see it will suppose it to be nothing other than that the letters have been transposed; and when they have been unable to obtain an understanding of them, at last, worn out by despair, they will cease from investigation, and whatever you have written will remain hidden. For no one, as I think, will examine this technique of writing secretly in its own powers, just as it is, unless he has at hand either the Polygraphia, or this key to it, or has been instructed by another. From these numeral letters, too, many other alphabets can be produced according to the order of numbering, when the beginning for writing alphabetically is taken not from unity but from any other following number. But in that progression you should know that one must take care that no more than two numerable signs be taken to represent one letter. Hence, when you have reached ww, that is, ten times one hundred thousand, stop your step and do not wander further, lest the multitude of signs confuse the beauty of writing by spoiling it. For after unity has been excluded, ten times one hundred thousand, with so many signs included, suffice for nearly thirty separate alphabets. Nevertheless, the method of the first alphabet, beginning with unity, is the more beautiful for wrapping secrets in writings, in proportion as it is shorter and simpler. Finally, it makes the writing less twisted. We have also arranged another alphabet with Latin letters in a confused order

thus distributed, and transposed without any rule; in imitation of it, almost numberless others can be made. And a likeness of it is now set down.

Let us also set down an example of this alphabet, so that we may prove that a secret can lie hidden in it.

Gquog, oʒuqi, ykar, din, uc, qacquxua, riqdiku99i, aqqurixrk3, skti, idta, ykoc9aqukg. uc, coddotacuo3, ofoqui, iukg, ci, hidiog.

This writing contains in itself the following sense: Know, friend, that the king in council has decreed that you are to be killed. Flee therefore as quickly as possible into [Aragon?] from his face, lest you perish.

This manner of writing too is tortuous, and is subject to no regular rule, since it can be varied and changed at the writer’s pleasure by chance transposition as much as anyone wishes.

Next it must be noted that at the end of the sixth book of the Polygraphia we handed down another method of writing by numerical signs, which people commonly call ciphers; under its covering you may safely write to an absent friend whatever you wish, and no one unskilled in the art will be able either to discover or suspect that a secret lies hidden there, especially if the rules that we have given concerning these matters are observed with careful caution. This is that the paper be formed in the manner of an astronomical table, as though it contained something pertaining to the reckoning of the stars, in such a way, namely, that the characters of the signs or of the planets are inserted, so that anyone into whose hands it may perhaps fall by chance, led by the appearance of a table, may think that no secret lies hidden in it, but may suppose that everything pertains to some astronomical computation.

We have arranged twelve alphabets according to the number of the twelve signs of the zodiac, assigning to each a number of twenty-four in place of letters; the first of these, of Aries, begins from one and ends at twenty-four.

C iiij

In weighty and difficult matters one must beware of beginning from one, because that very method of writing can easily be suspect on account of it. But whoever wishes prudently to use his own natural industry will find subtler things from ours, and what we have handed down without sufficient polish he will easily make better.

In the numerical dance great secrets lie hidden; if anyone properly understands it, he will penetrate more mysteries of numbers. For we had neither the time nor the reason on this occasion to pour everything forth into public view; but in our judgment what we have done will suffice for the instruction of those to whom our discoveries will one day be pleasing, so that they may have many methods not only of secretly writing whatever they wish to absent sharers in their skill, but also one method of producing from one several better and subtler methods, according to each person’s capacity of understanding.

Likewise, since the dances of numbers have been sufficiently opened in their proper places, and at the same time their tables laid out, it was not necessary here to repeat what has once been said, lest excessive prolixity create tedium for the reader. But I did not think it necessary to set down an example of writing more secretly by means of the figures of numbers, since there is no difficulty in knowing the method for all who possess even moderate ability. With like ease the very ancient signs for numbering which we have brought back to light can be understood and comprehended; by them the knowledge of numbers is extended to infinity. For whenever a stroke is placed over a smaller number, a thousandfold is denoted. For V̄ means ten thousand; etc. means one hundred thousand. M̄ means one thousand thousands. Xͨ means ten times one thousand thousands; etc. means one hundred times one thousand thousands. Mͫ means a thousand times one thousand thousands, and so on successively, as far as you may wish to advance in numbering, however much, without limit.

Here ends the Key of the Polygraphia of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Peapolitanus, addressed to Maximilian Caesar. Printed under the direction of Johannes Haselberg of Aia, bookseller, in the year from the birth of Christ 1518, in the month of July.

[A cipher-apparatus line (the cover-text apparatus) with a column of cross-references; partly garbled in the OCR.]

[page 534: a list of document- and writing-types, given in German and Latin capitals:] Posterium / Vindicatorium / Inquisition / Herbiger / Vindicatorium / Minder Funken / Abschied / Dictatorium / Notationen / Billetten / Propositionen / Schemen / Compositionen / Figuren / Recommendationen / Executivationen / Genortionen / Lizenzen / Keylerien / Translationen.

[page 539:] …[the letters] so distributed, and transposed without rule, in imitation of which other [transpositions] too can be made, almost without number; and a similitude of it is now set down. [cipher-alphabet grid, as printed.] Let us set down an example of this alphabet also, that we may prove that a secret can lie hidden in it: [enciphered line, as printed: "Gquog, ozuqi, ykar, din, uc, qacquxua…"]. But this writing contains in itself such a sense: "Know, friend, that the king in council has decreed that you are to be killed. Flee therefore, as quickly as possible, into Narragonia, from his face, lest you perish." This mode of writing, too, is tortuous, and is subjected to no regular rule; for it can be varied and changed by a fortuitous transposition, at the writer's pleasure, as much as anyone shall wish. Consequently it is to be noted that, at the end of the sixth book of the Polygraphy, we handed down another mode of writing by numeral notes, which they commonly call ciphers, under whose veil you will safely write to an absent friend whatever you wish, and no one unskilled in the art will be able either to discover or to suspect that a secret lies hidden—especially if the rules which we have given upon these [matters] be observed with diligent caution. This is, that the paper be formed in the manner of an astronomical table, as if it contained something pertaining to the reckoning of the stars—namely, so that the characters of the signs or planets be interposed—so that he into whose hands it perhaps fell by chance, led by the tabular similitude, would judge that nothing of a secret lies hidden in it, but would think that the whole pertains to some astronomical computation. And we have arranged twelve alphabets according to the number of the twelve signs of the zodiac, assigning to each a number of twenty-four in place of letters, of which the first, [that] of Aries, begins from unity and ends in twenty-four.

[unclear] and difficult matters one must beware of [unclear] from unity, because that manner of writing, on that very account, could easily be suspect. But whoever wishes prudently to use his own natural industry will find subtler things from ours, and will easily make better what we have handed down not sufficiently polished.

Great secrets lie hidden in the numerical orchema; if anyone properly understands it, he will penetrate many mysteries of numbers. For we had neither the time nor the reason on this occasion to pour everything forth to the public. In our judgment it will have been enough that we have done this for the instruction of those to whom our discoveries will one day be pleasing, so that they may have several methods not only of secretly writing whatever they wish to absent sharers in the art, but also one method of extending it into several better and subtler ones, according to each person's capacity of understanding. Likewise, since the orchemata of numbers have been sufficiently opened and made manifest in their proper places, and their tables at the same time set out, it was not necessary here to repeat what has once been said, lest excessive prolixity create weariness for the reader. But I did not think it necessary to set down, by means of figures of numbers, an example of writing more secretly, since there is no difficulty in knowing the method among all who are vigorous in even a moderate degree of intelligence. With like ease the most ancient signs of numbering, which we have brought back to light, can be understood and comprehended; by them the knowledge of numbers is extended to infinity. For whenever a stroke is placed above a smaller number, a thousand is designated. Thus [unclear] means ten thousand, etc.; [unclear] one hundred thousand; M [with mark] one thousand thousand; X [with mark] ten times one thousand thousand, etc.; [unclear] one hundred times one thousand thousand; M [with mark] signifies a thousand times one thousand thousand, and so consequently as far as, and however far, you wish to proceed in numbering, without limit.

Here ends the key of the Polygraphy of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of [unclear], to Emperor Maximilian. Printed under the direction of Johannes Haselberg of Aia, bookseller, in the year from the birth of Christ 1518, in the month of July.

[unclear] have mercy; [unclear] piety; wax, pure. As often as [unclear]. Life [unclear]. Ruler. [unclear] demanding. Many trouble. Us, shepherd. Wretched, evil. Of all, usefully. See [unclear]. Men. [unclear]. Of all. Great. Vices. Deeds. [unclear]. [unclear]. [unclear]. Your life [unclear]. God grant [it] to the saints of the creator, many. Index. Ruler. God. Wretched. Feasts. To be introduced. Vain things. Consider. In the kingdom of the blessed. It fails. Brothers. Your life [unclear].

Supplement to the Polygraphy: Index, or through the years. [unclear]

[unclear] most beautiful. [unclear]. Lead us [unclear]. [unclear] for the slain. And to the wretched [unclear]. Full grace. [unclear]. They care for God shrewdly. [unclear] with women. [unclear]. On account of this [unclear]. We read. Our [unclear]. [unclear]. Europe [unclear]. Life of the wretched sons of Eve. [unclear]. We seem to see Jesus Christ, advocate [unclear]. Riches [unclear]. Of the world [unclear]. Have mercy on us [unclear]. [unclear]. Part [unclear]. Mother of life, hail [unclear]. [unclear] chose. [unclear] by merits [unclear]. Most holy. [unclear]. Devoutly. Deceit [unclear]. To us [unclear]. Have mercy [unclear]. [unclear]. Concerning the matter, man. Johannes Trithemius. [unclear]. Straight [unclear]. Orchema of the highest [unclear]. Virgin [unclear]. First figure. Let us celebrate. Eternal merits. [unclear]. Public. [unclear]. Wretched, pious mother. [unclear]. But pass over. Second [unclear]. Of peace [unclear]. Our Father [unclear]. Orchema. Holy faith. Most weak. Hallowed [unclear]. Let thy will be done. [unclear]

Later vindicatory work. Of the Herbig inquiry. Vindicatory work. [unclear] Dismissal. Dictation-book. Annotations. Notes. Propositions. Schemes. Compositions. Figures. Recommendations. Executions. Genortiones [unclear]. Licenses. [unclear] Translations.