Voynich-style challenge cipher from Tony Gaffney...

Here’s a bit of fun for you that’s only running for a few more days: a Voynichese-style challenge cipher courtesy of everyone’s favourite hirsute cipher reclusive Tony Gaffney. Here it is (click on it for a more detailed image):-

He says:-

The above could almost be a missing page from the VM. If anyone cares to have a go at deciphering it, it is the start of a very well known Italian story – the plaintext is Italian and it reads left-to-right and top-to-bottom in the normal fashion.

What kind of cipher is it?

Here’s a basic transcription (into EVA) to get you going, assuming that is indeed a genuine cipher:-

p aiin deey eedy lched otoched r qochedchedy aiin eedy chedeed otoeed ch
qochedy lched otochedy chy cthey dchedy siin chdy daiin otoch dcthey cthey
otochedaiin eedy qo otod aiin lched eedy lched otochedoto qochedaiin etey
qochedee dotochedy otoaiiny daiin otocheds daiin eedy chedeed eeds qochedy
aiin eeotochedy

p l daiiny lched otochedy s eedr r otochedchedeed dy eey chedeed daiin eey
dchched dcthey otochedchedeed dy lched eedoto qochedy oto dotochedy eey
eedaiin eedy otoaiiny daiin otoch dcthey cthey otochedaiin eedy qoched siin
eedaiin s otoched

p chedeed eedaiiny r qochedy s otoched qochedy eey chedeed dch l qochedy
lched otochedy m otol l dy qochedy l daiiny daiin dchedy aiin dcthey
eedy otoched ry oto qochedeey cthey otochedcthey otochedaiin eedy
lched otochedy chedeed dch cthey dy chedeed eedr eedch dcthey eedy

p chched dch eedy otoched lched otochedeey l qochedcthey cthey otochedy
dy chedeed cthyched otochedy eey dch dy chedeed dcthet cthey otoched
oto eedy qochedy eey dee eedy daiin oto eedaiin eedy chedeed eedaiiny
chedeed cthyched otoched s otochedt lched otoched chedeed qoeeed odaiin ch
doto eed

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            |          |          |          |          |          |

Enjoy! 🙂

5 thoughts on “Voynich-style challenge cipher from Tony Gaffney…”

Sergi Ridaura on January 27, 2011 at 6:35 am said:

* Un crucigrama? me parece bien.

* A puzzle? I feel good.
tony on January 27, 2011 at 10:12 am said:

If you solve it, just post the 2 missing Italian words that I accidentaly omitted from the end of the second paragraph!

I see Nicks put “assuming it is a genuine cipher” –
it is – oh ye of little faith
nickpelling on January 27, 2011 at 10:55 am said:

Tony: *sigh* I meant ‘as opposed to steganography’. 🙂 Oh ye of little faith!
Tim T on February 2, 2011 at 6:45 pm said:

Looks like Tony may have added EVA character (oh?) on some of the above Eva ch (ie eighth word qochedchedy should be qoohedchedy. I count about 14 others. For those still working on this, it may help. Looks like oto and cth are separate characters/numbers. In fact I count about 17 “cth” of which 15 are followed by “ey”.

I should be counting vowels and doing di/tri grams but those squiggles off the stars are very distracting. Looks like OLIUG, or GUILO, CARLO, LO GUI, etc etc..can’t make sense of it yet.

TT
tony on February 3, 2011 at 4:15 pm said:

I’ve posted the solution here –

http://www.aerobushentertainment.com/crypto/index.php?action=recent