What kind of cipher is it? – basically ‘simple substitution’ – the 2 missing words ‘fermo mai’
It is the opening lines of the Pinocchio fairy tale & should say -
*Naso di legno, cuore di stagno, burattino quando diventerai un bimbo come noi?
*Pan di mollica, scansafatica, dove vai? Sono un burattino e non mi (fermo mai).
*Con le mie scarpe di zuppa e pan bagnato il vestitino di carta colorato
*faro i dispetti a chi sara cattivo e saro buono con chi mi dice: *Bravo!
Why would anyone make a cipher like that?
There are usually 3 sorts of ‘simple substitution’- i.e.
1 substitute letters for letters (eqalgtbqkudb)–
2 numbers for letters (2 18 5 1 11 20 8 18 15 21 7 8 )
3 fancy symbols for letters (+^~%!£$^#?{$) –
any of which can have a few frills added i.e. writing backwards, writing in ‘backslang’, including
nulls, misleading spaces, etc. etc.
What I think makes the VM cipher different is it’s a number cipher that has the numbers written
instead of just writing the actual numerals (they are also written backwards)
i.e. as in no. 2 above (owt neetthgie evif eno nevele ytnewt thgie neetthgie neetfif enoytnewt neves thgie)
or in Italian (eud ottoicid euqnic anu icidnu itnev otto ottoicid icidniuq anuitnev ettes otto)
note the oft recurring ‘icid’ – this I think is EVA ‘chedy’ where the y is some kind of separator & EVA ‘
cheedy’ is ‘iceid’
Is this what gives the VM its repetitive nature & rigid structure order?
Throw in a few frills & abbreviations, etc., write it so small that some of the letters look the same, give
it to someone 500 years later and we’re all stumped.
The following chart shows better what I’m getting at –
The above chart is by no means definitive (half of it is probably wrong and I still have gaps in it) –
consider it a work in progress.......
He probably used a keyword as well – try one in the Pinocchio key & you get a totally different output.
The Pinocchio example was ‘simple substitution’ (a basic trial run for the idea of written numbers) –
I could have made it much more like the VM if I had used alternative substitutes for some of the letters
(consider una,due, otto, in the above chart) – which would make it a homophonic cipher – I think the
VM author did this but unintentionally!
Before you say what about the ‘labels’, they’re probably just made up words.
You’ve probably spotted the absence of EVA ‘al’ ‘ar’ ‘ol’ ‘or’ ‘dal’ etc. – they may belong in the chart
above somewhere (possible) – they may be nulls (unlikely) – or they may just be simple words not
enciphered ‘la’ ‘lo’ ‘d-la’ (possible)
The Florio dictionary (which is probably about 140 years post the VM) can be found here –
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio1598/Anyways – just thought it worth posting.
