{"id":14,"date":"2024-08-23T14:05:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T14:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2024-08-23T14:05:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T14:05:33","slug":"history-of-steganography-and-cryptography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/history-of-steganography-and-cryptography\/","title":{"rendered":"History of steganography and cryptography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hypnerotomachia poliphili<\/a><\/em>, Anonymous, 1499The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (translated as \u2018the strife of love in a dream\u2019) is a very puzzling and enigmatic book. Published by Aldus Manutius in 1499, it contains a vast knowledge of architecture and landscape and garden design, but also engineering, painting and sculpture. It also contains one of the most famous authorship steganogram: the first letter of the 38 chapters spelled out \u2018Poliam frater Franciscus Columna peramavit\u2019 (\u2018Brother Francesco Colonna passionately loves Polia\u2019). Colonna was a monk, still alive when the book was published…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steganographia<\/a><\/em>, Trithemius (1462-1516), 1499This is Trithemius\u2019 most notorious work. It includes a sophisticated system of steganography, as well as angel magic. It also contains a synthesis of the science of knowledge, the art of memory, magic, an accelerated language learning system, and a method of sending messages without symbols or messenger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steganographica<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0Gaspari Schotti<\/a>, 1665Here are some photos of one of the oldest book on steganography and cryptography. Four hundred pages are dedicated to the subject. Most of the ideas presented in this book had been already discussed in\u00a0Steganographia<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Trithemius, 1499) and\u00a0Polygraphi\u00e6<\/em>\u00a0(Trithemius, 1516). Many thanks to the\u00a0Whipple Library<\/em>\u00a0in Cambridge for lending this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cryptology in the 15th and 16th century<\/em><\/a>, T Leary, Cryptologia v. XX no. 3 (July 96) pp 223\u2013242This article discusses a number of cryptographic and steganographic systems used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Authors of books such as histories often concealed their names in case their work offended powerful factions; while a treatise on the subject was written by Bishop John Wilkins, later the Master of\u00a0Trinity College<\/a>, Cambridge. He devised a number of schemes ranging from coding messages in music and string knots to invisible inks, described the principles of cryptanalysis by letter frequencies, and argued against those who opposed publication in the field: \u2018it will not follow that everything must be suppressed which may be abused<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2019The Pigeon Post into Paris 1870-1871<\/a><\/em>, J.D. Hayhurst O.B.E.This paper describes how pigeons and microphotography have been used extensively while Paris was besieged during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cryptographie militaire<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0Auguste Kerckhoffs<\/a>, 1883Although this paper is mostly about cryptography, it enunciates some principles that are worth keeping in mind when designing a new steganographic system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mathematical theory of communication systems<\/a><\/em>, Claude E. ShannonLes Filigranes<\/em>, Charles-Mo\u00efse Briquet, Geneva, 1907Historical dictionary of watermarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About\u00a0cyphers, Francis Bacon and Shakespeare<\/a>, Paul Dupuy J.\u2018The knowledge of Cyphering, hath drawne on with it a knowledge relative unto it, which is the knowledge of Discyphering, or of Discreting Cyphers, though a man were utterly ignorant of the Alphabet of the Cypher, and the Capitulations of secrecy past between the Parties. Certainly it is an Art which requires great paines and a good witt and is (as the other was) consecrate to the Counsels of Princes: yet notwithstanding by diligent prevision it may be made unprofitable, though, as things are, it be of great use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2019Early Cryptology<\/a><\/em>, Paul Dupuy, Jr.In order to understand better, the Shakespeare\/Bacon problem, the author review the important discovery of the history of cryptography among which, many appear to be steganographic systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So who wrote the work? you\u2019ll find more in\u00a0The Second Cryptographic Shakespeare<\/a>, Penn LearyQuestioning the authorship of Shakespeare is very unpopular. Most of what is \u2018known\u2019 about Shakespeare was invented by\u00a0Sir Sidney Lee<\/a>\u00a0[by Edward D. Johnson, from Baconiana, Dec. 1958] and his many \u2018we may assume,\u2019 \u2018undoubtedly\u2019 phrases. These are extracts from\u00a0The second cryptographic Shakespeare: a monograph wherein the poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare are proven to contain the enciphered name of the concealed author, Francis Bacon<\/em>, Penn Leary, Omaha, Nebr., U.S.A. : Westchester House, 1990. Second edition. ISBN 0961791713.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Myth of the Skytale<\/em>, T Kelly, Cryptologia v. XXII no. 3, July 1998, pp 244\u2013260.The author argues that the Greek word skytale did not originally denote an encryption device, but a piece of material on which a plaintext message was written, and which used a stick only for ease of transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solved: the Ciphers in Book III of Trithemius\u2019 Steganographia<\/a><\/em>, J Reeds, Cryptologia v XXII no 4, October 1998, pp 291\u2013318.The author shows that many of the number tables associated with magic spells in the third book of the Steganographia can be deciphered by reducing them modulo 25 and applying them to a reversed alphabet. Some previous writers had though that only the first two volumes were about cryptology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hypnerotomachia poliphili, Anonymous, 1499The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (translated as \u2018the strife of love in a dream\u2019) is a very puzzling and enigmatic book. Published by Aldus Manutius in 1499, it contains a vast knowledge of architecture and landscape and garden design, but also engineering, painting and sculpture. It also contains one of the most famous authorship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.petitcolas.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}