Blaise de Vigenère and the "Chiffre Carré". Mendelsohn, C. J. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 82(2):103--129, March, 1940. ArticleType: research-article / Full publication date: Mar. 22, 1940 / Copyright © 1940 American Philosophical Society![Blaise de Vigenère and the "Chiffre Carré" [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper doi abstract bibtex The aim of this paper is to trace the development of cipher-writing from the very simple devices of the Ancients to the so-called Chiffre Indéchiffrable, generally called the Vigenère Cipher. The elementary substitution of one letter of the alphabet for another, used by Cæsar and Augustus, was succeeded by the use of arbitrary characters for the letters. Since there is no limit to the possible number of arbitrary characters, while the number of letters in the alphabet is fixed, the practice later arose of having variants for frequently occurring letters. This practice is known as early as 1401. Leone Battista Alberti (+ 1472) devised a system of multiple alphabets-several equivalents for each letter employed in a fixed order-and at the same time found a way of discarding the cumbersome arbitrary characters and of returning to the use of ordinary letters of the alphabet. The Abbot Trithemius (+ 1508) made a series of tables of alphabets to be used in a fixed order. Giovanni Battista Belaso or Bellaso (otherwise unknown) about 1550 added the principle of the key, thus rendering possible the use of the alphabets in an arbitrary order. Giovanni Battista Porta in 1563 mixed the order of letters in the alphabet. Blaise de Vigenère, Bourbonnois, was a man of varied attainments. In 1586 he combined the table of Trithemius, the key of Belaso and the mixture of letters of Porta into what is generally called the Vigenère Cipher or Chiffre Indéchiffrable. In all the literature of cipher I know of only one writer who has correctly described Vigenère's cipher, and that was well over one hundred years ago. Vigenère does not claim to have invented the cipher, nor does he consider it the inexpugnable cipher par excellence. He gives, with one exception, a substantially correct account of its history, although he overflows with rancor against those who preceded him in the field. He does add a new method for keying the alphabets. This-his only original contribution to the cipher-has never been credited to him, but arises again in the nineteenth century as an invention of that day. The cipher enjoys an exaggerated reputation for safety, but still lives-in fact, of all ciphers except the very simplest, it is certainly the most widely known.
@article{mendelsohn_blaise_1940,
title = {Blaise de {Vigenère} and the "{Chiffre} {Carré}"},
volume = {82},
copyright = {Copyright © 1940 American Philosophical Society},
issn = {0003-049X},
url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/985011},
doi = {10.2307/985011},
abstract = {The aim of this paper is to trace the development of cipher-writing from the very simple devices of the Ancients to the so-called Chiffre Indéchiffrable, generally called the Vigenère Cipher. The elementary substitution of one letter of the alphabet for another, used by Cæsar and Augustus, was succeeded by the use of arbitrary characters for the letters. Since there is no limit to the possible number of arbitrary characters, while the number of letters in the alphabet is fixed, the practice later arose of having variants for frequently occurring letters. This practice is known as early as 1401. Leone Battista Alberti (+ 1472) devised a system of multiple alphabets-several equivalents for each letter employed in a fixed order-and at the same time found a way of discarding the cumbersome arbitrary characters and of returning to the use of ordinary letters of the alphabet. The Abbot Trithemius (+ 1508) made a series of tables of alphabets to be used in a fixed order. Giovanni Battista Belaso or Bellaso (otherwise unknown) about 1550 added the principle of the key, thus rendering possible the use of the alphabets in an arbitrary order. Giovanni Battista Porta in 1563 mixed the order of letters in the alphabet. Blaise de Vigenère, Bourbonnois, was a man of varied attainments. In 1586 he combined the table of Trithemius, the key of Belaso and the mixture of letters of Porta into what is generally called the Vigenère Cipher or Chiffre Indéchiffrable. In all the literature of cipher I know of only one writer who has correctly described Vigenère's cipher, and that was well over one hundred years ago. Vigenère does not claim to have invented the cipher, nor does he consider it the inexpugnable cipher par excellence. He gives, with one exception, a substantially correct account of its history, although he overflows with rancor against those who preceded him in the field. He does add a new method for keying the alphabets. This-his only original contribution to the cipher-has never been credited to him, but arises again in the nineteenth century as an invention of that day. The cipher enjoys an exaggerated reputation for safety, but still lives-in fact, of all ciphers except the very simplest, it is certainly the most widely known.},
number = {2},
urldate = {2013-04-13TZ},
journal = {Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society},
author = {Mendelsohn, Charles J.},
month = mar,
year = {1940},
note = {ArticleType: research-article / Full publication date: Mar. 22, 1940 / Copyright © 1940 American Philosophical Society},
pages = {103--129}
}
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Since there is no limit to the possible number of arbitrary characters, while the number of letters in the alphabet is fixed, the practice later arose of having variants for frequently occurring letters. This practice is known as early as 1401. Leone Battista Alberti (+ 1472) devised a system of multiple alphabets-several equivalents for each letter employed in a fixed order-and at the same time found a way of discarding the cumbersome arbitrary characters and of returning to the use of ordinary letters of the alphabet. The Abbot Trithemius (+ 1508) made a series of tables of alphabets to be used in a fixed order. Giovanni Battista Belaso or Bellaso (otherwise unknown) about 1550 added the principle of the key, thus rendering possible the use of the alphabets in an arbitrary order. Giovanni Battista Porta in 1563 mixed the order of letters in the alphabet. Blaise de Vigenère, Bourbonnois, was a man of varied attainments. In 1586 he combined the table of Trithemius, the key of Belaso and the mixture of letters of Porta into what is generally called the Vigenère Cipher or Chiffre Indéchiffrable. In all the literature of cipher I know of only one writer who has correctly described Vigenère's cipher, and that was well over one hundred years ago. Vigenère does not claim to have invented the cipher, nor does he consider it the inexpugnable cipher par excellence. He gives, with one exception, a substantially correct account of its history, although he overflows with rancor against those who preceded him in the field. He does add a new method for keying the alphabets. This-his only original contribution to the cipher-has never been credited to him, but arises again in the nineteenth century as an invention of that day. 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