TRITHÈME (Jean). Polygraphie et Universelle escriture... Lot 369

TRITHÈME (Jean). Polygraphie et Universelle escriture Cabalistique de M. I. Tritheme Abbé, Traduicte par Gabriel de Collange, natif de Tours en Auvergne. Followed by] Clavicle and interpretation on the contents of the five books of Polygarphy, & universal cabalistic writing. Followed by] Tables and planispheric figures. Paris, Jacques Kerver, 1561. 3 parts in one vol. in-4 of [18]-300 ff. in continuous pagination, with relay titles. Several pages printed in red and black. Beautiful title frame with the cipher of Jacques Kerver with royal arms, unicorns, mathematical instruments and with the name of the translator Gabriel de Collange hidden under the anagram : "L'ange regal docible". Engraved portrait of Gabriel de Collange woodcut on full page and repeated in each part. 13 figures with scrolls engraved on full page in the last part: within a square whose corners are decorated with allegorical figures, cherubs or interlaced figures, is fixed a mobile disc; its sectors engraved with trophies are framed by series of letters. Full-page engraved unicorn mark on colophon. Brown calf, spine rebacked in the late 19th century, period boards, endpapers rebacked. The work has been placed under a grey cloth cover embroidered with a cross on the spine, certainly to conceal its title. First edition in French of the most famous treatise on cryptography. Among the 18 ff. of introductory pieces are poems by Scévole de Sainte-Marthe and Jean Hubert. Corner of folio 15 cut out, with old handwritten letters on verso. With a short biography of G. de Collange handwritten in pencil by Léo Mérigot, secretary to Oswald Wirth, (on the verso of one of his blank prescriptions). Master initiator of Cornelius Agrippa and inspiration for Paracelsus, the German Benedictine monk Jean Trithème was accused of witchcraft and his works, including Steganography and Polygraphy, were put on the Index because of their use of strange signs. The encryption methods he developed in these two works allowed him to protect his esoteric work and to continue to study the Kabbalah and magic. In 1518, he gave his Polygraphiae, the first printed book dealing with hidden writings. He explains his steganographic process (hiding the message so that it is not visible) which consists of replacing each letter of the plaintext by a group of words, the cipher text then appearing as a poem. He also gave the keys to a cryptographic encryption method (making the message unintelligible). In Germany, in the 17th century, many authors claimed that he was the inventor of the Vigenère square. Such a table is indeed found in his Polygraphy; it is the first time that this method, the cipher of Trithemius, appears. "Princeps edition, by far the best and most sought after, with ornate title, portrait of the translator, cabalistic movable figures, and Kerver's 'Unicorn' mark an last leaf, all woodcut." Caillet 10850.