Abstract

In Meister’s 1906 landmark study, “Die Geheimschrift im Dienste der päpstlichen Kurie von ihren Anfängen bis zum Ende des XVI Jahrhunderts”, the 16th Century papal cryptographic service is described as a vibrant, highly professional organization, at the forefront of the science of cryptography in the Late Renaissance. In his work from 1993, Alvarez concluded that by the 19th Century, “the reputation of papal cryptography, once so lustrous, has sadly faded.” However, until now, very little was known about the evolution of papal cryptography from the 16th to the 18th Century. In this article, we describe how we obtained a large collection of original papal ciphertexts from the Vatican archives, transcribed them, and how we were able to recover most of the keys, and to decipher the original plaintexts using novel cryptanalysis methods and the open-source e-learning CrypTool platform. The recovered keys and decipherments provide unique insights into papal cryptographic practices from the 16th to the 18th Century. The 16th Century is characterized by innovation and a high level of sophistication, with a primary focus on cryptographic security. From the 17th Century, only the simpler but also less secure forms of ciphers remain in use, and papal cryptography significantly lags behind other European states.

摘要

在梅斯特的1906 年具有里程碑意义的研究，“Die Geheimschrift im Dienste der päpstlichen Kurie von ihren Anfängen bis zum Ende des XVI Jahrhunderts”，16 世纪教皇密码服务被描述为一个充满活力、高度专业的组织，处于文艺复兴晚期密码科学的前沿. 在 1993 年的工作中，阿尔瓦雷斯总结道，到了 19 世纪，“教皇密码学的名声曾经如此光彩夺目，但遗憾的是，它已经消失了。” 然而，直到现在，人们对 16 世纪到 18 世纪教皇密码学的演变知之甚少。在这篇文章中，我们描述了我们如何从梵蒂冈档案中获得大量原始教皇密文，将它们转录，以及我们如何能够恢复大部分密钥，并使用新颖的密码分析方法和开源电子学习 CrypTool 平台破译原始明文。恢复的密钥和破译提供了对 16 至 18 世纪教皇密码实践的独特见解。16 世纪的特点是创新和高度复杂，主要关注密码安全。从 17 世纪开始，只有更简单但安全性较低的密码形式仍在使用，教皇密码学明显落后于其他欧洲国家。