VIGENÈRE (Blaise de). - Lot 58

VIGENÈRE (Blaise de). Traicté des chiffres, ou secrètes manières d'escrire. Paris : Abel L'Angelier, 1587. - In-4, 229 x 174: 333 ff. ill-foliated 343, (1 f.), 3 tables. Brown basane, gilt fillet framing the boards, ribbed spine, speckled edges (17th century binding). Caillet, 11159. - Balsamo, Simonin, 167. - Dorbon, 5129. First edition of 1586, second issue, i.e. dated 1587. This treatise, dedicated to Antoine Séguier, was written by the Bourbonnais poet, alchemist and cryptographer Blaise de Vigenère (1523-1596). It is one of the most important works in the history of cryptography. In it, the author proposes not only methods for encrypting letters, but also ciphers and symbols. His system was one of the most widely used until the 19th century, when it was broken by Prussian cryptologist and archaeologist Major Friedrich Kasiski (1805-1881). "The Vigenère cipher is a polyalphabetic substitution system created by G. B. Bellaso in 1553 and popularized by B. de Vigenère in 1586 in his Traité des chiffres. This encryption process relies on the periodic use of several substitution alphabets determined by the key (usually a word). To be able to encrypt a clear text, we associate a letter of the key with each character to perform the corresponding shift, like Caesar's cipher" (Damien Vergnaud, Exercices et problèmes de cryptographie, 2023, p. 9). The edition was printed in red and black and features numerous tables, including four fold-outs (the first three of which are out of the text) showing alphabets from several nations. There is also a copperplate engraving on the verso of the title, bearing the author's motto in Latin, two fold-out woodcuts included in the foliotation, one depicting a starry sky and the other laurel leaves, and an engraving of a tower on the recto of folio 274. Copy without the two end leaves containing the "Répertoire des tables et chiffres", which Balsamo and Simonin claim are very rarely found. Restored binding with numerous scuff marks and worm damage to headpieces, spines and edges of boards. Staining to first 20 leaves and last few leaves. Light marginal staining at the top of some leaves. Angular loss to leaf A4, without affecting the text. Worm gallery in the inner margin of leaves 173 to 189.