As most CM readers will know, it’s widely considered that the greatest (unsolved) cipher mystery is the Voynich Manuscript. However, I’ve long wondered whether this might actually run a rather poor historical second to John Dee’s works of “angelic magic”. Whereas the Voynich Manuscript only has a ragtag bunch of cryptologists (a group I am proud to be a member of) poking at its edges, for more than a century John Dee’s mysterious work has inspired all manner of quasi-religious Enochian followers to do all manner of magickal ceremonies. Big difference, huh?
From Hooke onwards, people have suspected that John Dee – who was utterly gleeful when he finally managed to get a copy of Trithemius’ Steganographia – was not a magician/magus but a cryptographer/spy (or maybe a wannabe cryptographer/spy). And yet these days, this view has largely faded away: and even modern histories of Dee seem condemned to go round in (magic) circles.
Dee’s Tabula Angelorum Bonorum 49 (fol. 51r) offers a nice starting point, with seven sets of names associated with each of the seven classical ‘planets’, yielding forty-nine entries:
For fun just now, I transcribed all the names as best I could (by referencing various Enochian websites, I’ve also included the linked weekday and archangel for each):
1 Venus B A L I G O N King Friday Haniel
2 Venus B O R N O G O Prince
3 Venus B a p n i d o Governor
4 Venus B e s g e m e Governor
5 Venus B l u m a p o Governor
6 Venus B m a m g a l Governor
7 Venus B a s l e d f Governor
8 Sun B O B O G E L King Sunday Raphiel
9 Sun B E F A F E S Prince
10 Sun B a s m e l o Governor
11 Sun B e r n o l e Governor
12 Sun B r a n g l o Governor
13 Sun B r i s f l i Governor
14 Sun B n a g o l e Governor
15 Mars B A B A L E L King Tuesday Kamael
16 Mars B U T M O N O Prince
17 Mars B a z p a m a Governor
18 Mars B l i n t o m Governor
19 Mars B r a g i o p Governor
20 Mars B e r m a l e Governor
21 Mars B o n e f o n Governor
22 Jupiter B Y N E P O R King Thursday Zadkiel
23 Jupiter B L I S D O N Prince
24 Jupiter B a l c e o r Governor
25 Jupiter B e l m a r a Governor
26 Jupiter B e n p a g i Governor
27 Jupiter B a r n a f a Governor
28 Jupiter B m i l g e s Governor
29 Mercury B N A S P O L King Wednesday Michael
30 Mercury B R O R G E S Prince
31 Mercury B a s p a l o Governor
32 Mercury B i n o d a b Governor
33 Mercury B a r i g e s Governor
34 Mercury B i n o f o n Governor
35 Mercury B a l d a g o Governor
36 Saturn B N A P S E N King Saturday Tzaphqiel
37 Saturn B R A L G E S Prince
38 Saturn B o r m i l a Governor
39 Saturn B u s c n a b Governor
40 Saturn B m i n p o b Governor
41 Saturn B a r t i r o Governor
42 Saturn B l i i g a n Governor
43 Moon B L U M A Z A King Monday Gabriel
44 Moon B A G E N O L Prince
45 Moon B a b l i b o Governor
46 Moon B u s d u n a Governor
47 Moon B l i n g e f Governor
48 Moon B a r f o r t Governor
49 Moon B a m n o d e GovernorIs this all meaningless filler? Well… I’d point out that the middle column of the seven letters (i.e. INngmmlOA etc) is the “least fillerish” by far, with a reasonable character distribution and where the most common letters are ‘m’ and ‘n’. Note that I tried running this column through Cryptocrack in various ways (English patristocrat, Latin patristocrat, governors only, governors only and sorted by days of the week), and nothing jumped out: but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something hidden there.
From my perspective, there’s a strong case to be had that John Dee never needed the Voynich Manuscript to be associated with him for his angelic writings to be seen as not just cryptic, but also cryptographic. And so maybe the biggest mystery here is why nobody (not even Jim Reeds) seems to be even trying to crack Dee’s work.