By now I’m sure you’re all thoroughly sick of the way I heap superlatives and laurel wreaths onto Tony Gaffney’s hair-bestrewn head every time he cracks yet another of Bellaso’s ciphers… and now he’s broken two more, lifting his tally for the 1564 set of challenge ciphers to 6 out of 7. Though Tony dearly wants to make it 7/7, Bellaso’s remaining 1564 cipher appears to be an awkward one, a real Holmesian three-pipe problem… so let’s keep our fingers crossed Tony can make it a clean sweep. 🙂
Anyway, as compared to #7’s tortuous digrams, #3 turned out to be relatively easy: it involved five rotating reciprocal alphabets (Bellaso’s favourite starting point), with the confounding trick being that the first letter of each group is basically random, and indicates which one of the five rotated alphabets to use (by using the index of the letter within the cipher alphabet). There are asterisks marked at the two places (in lines 1 and 3) where this fails to quite work, but the basic idea seems completely solid.
1564 #3
lasumita demonti secnserva perche lacque otneve CNRDEPSGT XEQRLLGP FDUHLLQMXX AMCABAA HPEEOHU MIDLDHU 45123451 5123451 123451234 345123 234512 *234512chesopra deesi spesocadono insi contengono leesalationi REFQFLQAT NSUAIB GFMCLGTEHQFI TNLLP EBIJFDFNLLQ OPACLTPEFBGGN 45123451 12345 23451234512 3451 1234512345 234512345123etvageri terestri asesi nelaria oxvirtu solare etcosi FQCXXUQMN RFDLUGFAP SRDUGS BLDRHQSR PMCHOQFP QDIOXAQ LCGBIGS 12345123 45123451 51234 4512345 *4512345 123451 451234latgu cheper lepiogie scorgzoso demonti xepiogie etnevi CNRANX DXUUMCA MSQLNMTPU AGEQLNZLIQ FSUPMMAO RADIOLBBQ SDAGARB 45123 512345 51234512 345123451 1234512 45123451 512345larepone sopra detimonti HPEUDIIICXLGLQX QSUDSNGGDS. 23451234 51234 123451234
QFEN QUACDFGILM 1
EHTBSNOPRX
UGHO QUACDFGILM 2
XEHTBSNOPR
AITP QUACDFGILM 3
RXEHTBSNOP
CLBR QUACDFGILM 4
PRXEHTBSNO
DMSX QUACDFGILM 5
OPRXEHTBSN
The (possibly meaningless?) keyword here is “QUA(C)EHTBS”, yielding a cleartext like this:-
La sumita de monti se conserva perche l’acque ot neve
che sopra de esi speso cadono in si contengono le esalationi
et vageri terestri asesi ne l’aria ox virtu solare et cosi
la tgu che per le piogie scorgzoso de monti xe piogie et nevi
la repone sopra deti monti.
And so we move onto Bellaso’s 1564 challenge cipher #4, which is also a bit of a pussycat (yes, it has five rotating reciprocal alphabets) – the secondary trick here is the autokey, wherein the last plaintext letter of each group indicates which of the five alphabets to start the next group with.
1564 #4
etper ilcontrario simarre conserva lasua profocsita NCUTA REXEECSUAUB NUEFPAN FAGRTAIX HOUPU QHBADFMRDU 12345 12345123451 5123451 51234512 51234 5123451234etgrandeza perche fluctrbu viena sotiliare larena etparte MDLAOGTTZR FLPFRM PEAFBIXA IRLIR NACQGMOIL HOILIR OBFFPGN 23451234-5 234512 23451234 12345 512345123 512345 5123451teree chein esosono liqualli cosi sotiliati etcon lacqua CLPON XLNRH OFBRDSA DQSBODEN FAUQ NACQGMOCQ OBTCI DFXPIX 23451 45123 5123451 23451234 5123 123451234 51234 234512mescolati sono salavirtu solarein aria levati etdali venti INUODHOCQ FBHD MXEUBUIDA FBEUANRH OIQU ETBOCQ OBLFGM SLIGU 512345123 1234 123451234 12345123 1234 345123 512345 23451indiverse plrti portati ethnacqua conversi restano MELQAOHUL QCIDN FCPGOCQ MDMSOTIAR TCIBNIRN ANUDUSA 512345123 51234 2345123 234512345 23451234 5123451distributi sulimonti etin altrilochi OMFCSNUICQ FSENIAGDN NCQI XEEAUDCXLU. 4512345123 123451234 1234 2345123451
SDFM SPABCDEGHI 1
FXOTLMNQRU
PEXN SPABCDEGHI 2
UFXOTLMNQR
AGOQ SPABCDEGHI 3
RUFXOTLMNQ
BHTR SPABCDEGHI 4
QRUFXOTLMN
CILU SPABCDEGHI 5
NQRUFXOTLM
The (once again, somewhat mysterious) keyword here is “SPAFXOT”:-
et per il contrario si marre conserva la sua profocsita (profundita)
et grandeza perche fluctrbu vien a sotiliare la rena et parte
teree che in eso sono li qualli cosi sotiliati et con l’acqua
mescolati sono sala virtu solare in aria levati et da li venti
in diverse plrti (parti) portati et hn acqua conversi restano
distributi su li monti et in altri lochi.
Observant cryptologers will be pleased to note that Tony managed to crack both of these even though neither contained the word proportione. 🙂
Praise aside, all that I can say now is “Go, Tony, Go!” – good luck with the final cipher in the set!
To me the codes above are impossible to solve, ive put my keys to solve the Beale treasure location codes on different sites and had little response there are no book keys, the keys are in the preceeding number to the one you want to decode, i have six related keys and here is the easiest example.
71= 7+1= 8+7 = 15= O
194=1+9+4=14+7=21=U
38=3+8=11+7=18=R
1701added=9+7=16=
P,now ive pressed the wrong button and im giving upi know ive got farther than anyone else on finding the keys to decode Beals treasure location code i gave some keys on other sites in the hope someone will finsh the decode and verify im right there is a message to be found and a burial vaultand i know its IN THE COUNTY OF BEDFORD, JOINTLY OWNED,and the message ends, ON THE BALWONY,
but i think the W for code number 820
should be 826 which decodes to C
making it ON THE BALCONY
Hey Nick, some German guy deciphered the last cipher that Tony missed. Its a fairly short Latin prayer.
Shurupag: cool – do you have a link etc?
Nick: Here is the link:
http://scienceblogs.de/klausis-krypto-kolumne/2016/04/05/blog-leser-loest-top-25-verschluesselungsraetsel/2/
Some random wandering around the internet looking at ciphers led me a lad’s blog who mention it. I googled the solver’s name and sure enough I found that link.
More information about Norbert Biermann’s solution of several Bellaso ciphers is provided in this thread: http://scienceblogs.de/klausis-krypto-kolumne/2013/08/02/top-25-der-ungelosten-verschlusselungen-platz-11-bellasos-aufgaben-aus-dem-16-jahrhundert/
Hey Nick, as a matter of fact, I posted my solutions of 1555 #1, and 1564 #5, on your site some hours before I did on Klaus Schmeh’s blog:
http://ciphermysteries.com/other-ciphers/bellaso-ciphers#comment-342035
http://ciphermysteries.com/other-ciphers/bellaso-ciphers#comment-342040
But I am glad to see that you heard about it, well, indirectly 🙂