The manuscript
The text
contains four
very clearly
visible codes.
These are composed of additional
characters, characters
written in very small font, characters written above the line and characters
written under the line. In this discussion we
will only be concentrating on the code
which is formed as a result of the additional
characters. The other three codes
are mentioned below, but no
decryption has yet been applied to them.
The extra
characters in the text are not randomly added. On the contrary, they
are accurately placed every 7 characters in the text. (note 4)
The code
clearly consists of two groups of 64 characters, separated by the
text “AD GENESARETH” (note 5).
A = The
original text from the manuscript
B = The text
from the Blanchefort-headstone in reverse
C = The text
“MORT EPEE” repeated
D = The
result of de decyphering
# = The
sequence-number of the knight-tour, in which sequence the result-text must
be read.
Now the
decyphering-process is easy:
1.
Take a chess-board of 64 squares
2.
Write down the three texts A, B, C
3.
Do the decyphering for each square
placing the result in
D
4.
Read the message in text D, in the sequence of “#”, starting with
square #1 etc.
The
decyphering itself was done by a technique invented by a mr. Vigenere in the
16th century, and is performed by using a matrix of letters as shown below.
The technique is simple.
In fact you have to add the occurrence number of two letters, the so called
“cypher-text” (in our case the manuscript) and the “cypher-key” (in our case
the headstone-text and the text “mort epee”) in the alphabet giving a third
number, which
corresponds with a new letter. Using the “Vigenere-matrix” shown below, it
is simply done by looking up the two letters in the first row respectively
the first column of the matrix, and reading the result where the lines
cross.
For example:
in the first square,
the manuscript give the letter
“V” (This is placed in
position A), the headstone-key
reads a “M” (placed in
position B). Where the row “M”
and the column “V” cross each
other, one can read a “J”
via the Vigenère alphabet.
Because of
the fact that we
are using two
keys instead of one, we
have to repeat the process. Then we use the result of the first decyphering
(the “J”) in combination with the second key, a “M” (position C). Then the
result reads a “X”. So the result of this action is an
“X” at position D.
Doing this
with each square reveales the whole text in a very simple and quick way.
Note:
it is believed that this process has a relation with a sentence in the “sot
pecheur” document, as you may well know: “…turned twice on the grill…”. The
grill is the Vigenere-matrix, turned twice means used with two
keys.
The result
In the
picture of the manuscript
I
have marked the letters of the text red.
Now you can
clearly see the 7-character
within
it. Errors in the manuscripts
are
coloured blue.
The
decyphered text
reads:
BERGETE
PAS
DE
TENTATION
QUE
POUSSIN
TENIERS
GARDENT
LA
CLEF
SLXDCLXHXI
PAR
LA
CROIX
ET
CE
CHEVAL
DE
DIEU
JACHEVE
CE
DAEMON
DE
GARDIEN
A
MIDI
POMMES
BLEUES
We can also
easy check the manuscript-text and the headstone-key.
The have all been double-checked and as far as there
seem to be
no errors in it.
But as you
can see, the result still differs from the well-known translation in three
letters, which
are shown here in red
in the table and the text,
and
circled in green
on the manuscript.
It's very difficult to tell what
is wrong and herein lies riddle.
If you look at the places in the manuscript where these three letters occur,
they are actually very clear and it is hard to mistake them for anything
else. As you will know the final deciphered message is a perfect anagram of
the Blanchefort headstone with the addition of a further 9 letters (PSPRAECUM).
With the letters we have here it is clear that we do not have a perfect
anagram. This leads us to the inescapable conclusion that the manuscript is
a reproduction. It was at some stage in its life copied and that the author,
although generally very accurate, made these three little mistakes. This
fact opens up a whole new area of debate and the first question one
must ask is why copy this information? Also if this was copied from another
document, then perhaps not all the information on the original was
transferred. Finally, in the original decipherment of this message we
were presented with a clear piece of French text. However even they would
have found the same three letters and it is obvious that they simply
substituted the correct ones in order to produce a readable text. The deeper
significance appears to have been missed.
