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The Cipher Alphabet of John de Foxton's Liber Cosmographiæ

John Block Friedman

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Friedman John Block. The Cipher Alphabet of John de Foxton's Liber Cosmographiæ. In: Scriptorium, Tome 36 n°2, 1982. pp.
219-235;

doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/scrip.1982.1268

https://www.persee.fr/doc/scrip_0036-9772_1982_num_36_2_1268

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 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON'S
LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE*

Among the treasures of Trinity College, Cambridge, is a compendium of popular

science, the Liber Cosmographiae, made by the Yorkshireman, John de Foxton, in
1408. This volume is said in the colophon to have been given by the author, called
« capellanus », to the brothers and minister of the Trinitarian house of Saint Robert
at Knaresborough. It was obtained at the dissolution by Archbishop Whitgift and
donated to the college in 1604 (1). The manuscript has remained relatively little known
since, though its contents and beautiful illustrations are of considerable interest to
medievalists (2). One of the work's most striking features is the enciphering of a
of words by means of a substitution alphabet unlike any other known to us from
the Middle Ages. Apparently, its purpose was to conceal the import of certain material
in the compendium by using several ciphered words in key positions within each
to throw it slightly «out of focus» and so make it unintelligible to the casual reader.
Though this technique was occasionally employed in other medieval manuscripts
cipher, the scale and consistency with which it is used in the Liber Cosmographiae
can give us important insights into the mentality which lay behind medieval codes.
As a cipher is rather difficult to visualize, it may be helpful here to offer some
of this substitution alphabet from one of the diagrams of the Liber Cosmographiae.

* I am grateful to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and to the Graduate
College of the University of Illinois for aid which made the research for this paper possible, and
to the Librarians and staff of Trinity College, Cambridge, the York Minster Library and the
Borthwick Institute of Historical Research for their help. I should like to thank Neil Ker,
Barbara Obrist, Roger A. Pack, Derek Price and Nancy Siraisi for their advice and information.
A shorter form of this paper was read at the Seventh Conference on Manuscript Studies, St. Louis,
Missouri, 1980.
(1) See Philip Gaskell, Trinity College Library, The First 150 Years (Cambridge, Eng., 1981).
Section 11-1 deals with bequests. See also W. 0'Sul.livan, « Archbishop Whitgift's Library
Catalogue », TLS (1956) p. 468. MS. R.15.21 is described in M. R. James, The Western Manuscripts
in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, Eng., 1900-1904) 943, p. 358-361.
(2) The only discussions of the Liber Cosmographiae' s illustrations known to me occur in Raymond
Klibansky et al., Saturn and Melancholy (London, 1964), p. 296, n. 55, who find them puzzling ;
F. Saxl. and R. Wittkower, British Art and the Mediterranean (Rp., 1969 Oxford), who find
« the pictures as unexciting as the text » and « too complicated to be intelligible » p. 35 ; and
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts, Vol. 6 of J. J. G. Alexander éd., A Survey of
Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles (London, Harvey Miller, to appear).

219
 JOHN BLOCK FRIEDMAN

(See PL 22 a). Working from the top of the pentangle (3) clockwise, we find the
words designating the broad physiognomic divisions of the human body concealed
in cipher : pilus, capillus, caput, caro, pectus, lumbus, manus, motus, vox, frons,
supercilia, nasus, os, dentés, mentum, faciès, aures, and collum. In the center
tibii, quantitas, and color. Each word is keyed by an appropriate sign to a group
of the chapters on physiognomy.
Before discussing John de Foxton and the letter forms of his artificial alphabet,
I think it may be helpful to look at the traditions which lay behind the use of cipher
in similar scientific works of the period. In particular, the concept of hermeticism
as it was understood during the Middle Ages, sheds considerable light upon the
of sprinkling encoded words throughout a work believed to contain arcane
A comparison of John's manuscript with some others employing cipher will
help us to see it in its cultural context, and also to appreciate the degree of its original-
lity. There is evidence to believe that John not only designed this alphabet, but
wrote the ciphered words in question, although much of the manuscript was
copied by a professional scribe.
John de Foxton's cipher differs considerably in form and intention from the more
familiar papal and diplomatic codes of the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
which were chiefly numerical systems for encoding whole documents (4). For the
sake of simplicity, I call his cipher and others like it « scientific » ciphers, though they
occur in manuscripts which are more properly astrological and alchemical. That is,
scientific ciphers are to be found at the fringes of medieval science rather than at its
center. And it is perhaps for this reason that with the exception of the famous Voynich

(3) Chapter 31, f. 15. The pentangle, whose vertices corresponded to the head and outstretched
arms and legs, was a symbol of health and of the human body. See J. Sghouten, The Pentagram
as a Medical Symbol (Nieuwkoop, 1968) p. 29-45, 51-61, and Derek de Solla Price, « The *& $•,
and O, and other Geometrical and Scientific Talismans and Symbolisms », in M. Teigh and R.
Young éd., Changing Perspectives in the History of Science, Essays in Honour of Joseph Needham
(London, 1973) 250-264.
(4) An example of a papal cipher with an attempt at a solution appears in Albert C. Leighton,
« A Papal Cipher and the Polish Election of 1573 », Jahrbùcher fiir Geschichte Osteuropas N.F. 17
(1969) 13-28. On cipher generally, see J. G. Galland, A Bibliography of the Literature of Cipher
(Evanston, 111., 1945), and in particular, A. Meister, Die Geheimschrift im Dienste der pâpstlichen
Kurie (Paderborn, 1906) ; Henry Biaudet, « Un chiffre diplomatique du xvie siècle », Annales
Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Series B, 2 (1910-1911) 1-16 and Liisi Karttunen, « Chiffres
diplomatiques », ibid., 3-31 ; Yves Gyldén, « Cryptologues italiens aux xve et xvie siècles »,
Revue Internationale de Criminalistique 4 (1932) 195-205 ; J. K. Thompson and S.K. Padover,
Secret Diplomacy (London, 1937) p. 253-263 ; Pierre Speziali, « Aspects de la cryptographie
au xvie siècle », Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 17 (1955) 188-206 ; G. Costamagna,
Tachiografia notarile e scritture segrete mediovali in Italia (Rome, 1968) p. 40-52 ; and Walter
Hôfleghner, éd., Francesco Tranchedino Diplomatische Geheimschriften (Graz, 1970).

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 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON'S LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE

manuscript at Yale (5), they have attracted so little scholarly attention. Indeed,
aside from the important article by Bischoff in 1954 (6) classifying various cipher
alphabets, the subject has been more often seen as a frivolous illustration of medieval
popular culture than seriously studied. David Kahn, for example, one of the most
responsible students of cryptography, observes condescendingly that « ciphers, of
course, had been used by monks all through the Middle Ages for scribal amusement » (7).
In fact these scientific ciphers were generated by concerns of the highest seriousness
for medieval men. From a purely practical point of view, they often protected an
author against charges by ecclesiastical authorities that he was meddling in dark
arts. The well known remarks of Roger Bacon on this subject come quickly to mind.
Arnald of Villanova in his De Secretis Nature speaks of making known the results
of an experiment « et fui captus unum mensem » (8). And undoubtedly the edict of
John XXII, « Spondent », 1317, forbidding alchemical experiments, came by
to apply to other forms of scientific investigation as well (9).
More importantly, however, a fascination with ciphers in what may be loosely called
the literature of secrets was generated by hermeticism (10). One of the chief
of alchemical and astrological writing in the Middle Ages is the idea of a vast
number of foolish or boorish persons and a small elite of adepts, an audience aptly
described by Thomas Norton in the Ordinal of Alchemy as «electis semita viris boni
spei » (u). This small circle received secret wisdom from sages, Magi, Babylonian
priest magicians and figures like Hermes Trismegistus, as well as modern philosophers.
Pseudo-Gebir (12), one of the most important medieval writers on alchemy, says in

(5) This manuscript is described in Walter Cahn and James Marrow, « Medieval and Renaissance
Manuscripts at Yale : A Selection », The Yale University Library Gazette 52 (1978) p. 271-2. The
major essays on its make up and meaning have been collected in Robert S. Brumbaugh ed. The
Most Mysterious Manuscript: The Voynich 'Roger Bacon' Cipher Manuscript (Carbondale, 111.,
and London, 1978).
(6) Bernhard Bischoff, « Ûbersicht ûber die nichtdiplomatischen Geheimschriften des Mittel-
alters », Mitteilungen des instituts fur Osterreichische Geschichtsforschung 62 (1954) 1-27.
(7) David Kahn, The Code Breakers (N.Y., 1967) p. 107.
(8) Bodl. Libr. Ashmole 1384, f. 81r.
(9) A. Friedberg ed. Corpus Iuris Canonici (Rp. Graz, 1959) col. 1295-6.
(10) The best study of the Greek background for the tradition is A. J. Festugière, La révélation
d'Hermès Trismégiste (Paris, 1950), 1, p. 67-308. The discussion of medieval hermetica in J.
Evola, La Tradition hermétique (Paris, 1968) and E. O. Von Lippmann, « Some Remarks on
Hermes and Hermetica », Ambix 2 (1938) p. 21-5 should be supplemented by Lynn Thorndike,
A History of Magic and Experimental Science (N.Y., 1923), 2, p. 219-228.
(11) John Reidy ed. Thomas Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy EETS : OS 272 (London, 1975) p. 3.
(12) The best general study of alchemical literature with an extensive bibliography is Robert
Halleux, Les Textes Alchimiques (Turnhout, 1979) ; on pseudo-Gebir see p. 25-6. A good summary
of the major texts is given by W. Ganzenmuller, V Alchimie au Moyen Age, tr. G. Petit-Du-
taillis (Rp. Verviers, 1974) p. 3-66. See also Barbara Obrist, Les Débuts de l'imagerie alchimique
(14e-15e siècles) (Paris, 1982). In the Libellus de Alchemia associated with Albert the Great,
we find the author writing to his « friends » the secrets of the art : « I beg and I adjure you ... to

221
 JOHN BLOCK FRIEDMAN

the Bodley copy of the Summa Perfectionis that « maxime antiquos, et sapientes et
nostro tempore repertos ... hanc indagasse legimus scientiam, sed talibus nee ore nee
scriptis earn tradere voluerunt cum indigni sint eius. » (MS Ashmole 1384, f. 5V).
How these « indigni » were kept from knowing alchemical and other secrets was
discussed by Roger Bacon in the Arts and Secrets of Nature, probably written in 1248.
Bacon says that men have traditionally concealed their meaning by writing in a
way « ut nemo posset légère, nisi sciat significata dictionum ». Of special interest
to us here, however, is his remark that « occultabant quidam per alias litteras, sicut
nee apud gentem suam, nee apud alias nationes, sed fingunt eas pro voluntate sua ; et hoc
est maximum impedimentum » (13). He attributes some of these artificial alphabets to two
mythical sages, the cosmographer Aethicus Ister and the proto-alchemist Artephius (w).
Though Bacon was concerned with general principles and does not give specific
details of these methods of concealment, another English author, writing slightly
later than Bacon, combines hermetic theory with practice, in a little known but
interesting work, the Secretum Philosophorum, composed in the third quarter
of the thirteenth century (15). The Secretum is an experimental treatise in seven
each relating to one of the liberal arts. Though it casts much light on medieval
popular culture, it has never been published. In spite of its imposing title, it is in
large measure a collection of parlor games and technical recipes (16), often of a sort

hide this book from all the foolish. For to you I shall reveal the secret, but from the others I
shall conceal the secret of secrets because of envy of this noble knowledge ». Virginia Heines
tr. Libellus de Alchimia (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1958) p. 3.
(13) J. Brewer ed. Fr. Rogeri Bacon, Opera QuaedamHactenus Znedifa (Rp. Millwood, N.Y., 1964 :
Rolls Series 15) p. 544-5. For dating see H. W. L. Hime, « Roger Bacon and Gun Powder, » in A.
G. Little éd., Roger Bacon, Essays (Rp. N.Y., 1972) p. 321, but D.W. Singer, «Alchemical Writings
Attributed to Roger Bacon », Speculum 7 (1932) believes c. 11 to be earlier than Bacon, p. 81.
(14) The most recent study of Aethicus is that of Kurt Hillkowitz, Zur Kosmographie des Aethicus
11 (Frankfort am Main, 1973). On Artephius see D. "W. Singer, A Catalogue of Latin and
Alchemical Manuscripts in Great Britain and Ireland (Brussels, 1928-1931) 1, item 145 as well
as Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings
in Latin (Cambridge, Mass., 1963) s-v. See also H. D. Austin, « Artephius-Orpheus », Speculum
12 (1937) 251-4.
(15) See on this work, Singer, A Catalogue, 2, item 1078, p. 722-4 and Thorndike, A History,
2, p. 788-91, 811-12. My quotations come from Cambridge, Trinity Coll. 0.1.58.
(16) The Secretum Philosophorum, in spite of the promise of its title, belongs with collections of
technical recipes such as the Mappae Clavicula. This work also shows an interest in alphabets
and runes and offers recipes for ornamental though not secret writing. The 12th-century version
of the work published by G. S. Smith and J. G. Hawthorne ed. Mappae Clavicula, TAPS NS 64
(1974) contains in the recipe for making alcohol, a letter shift cipher hiding the names of the key
ingredients. On recipe literature generally, see Guy Beaujouan, « Les recettes et l'alchimie »,
in René Taton ed. Histoire Générale des Sciences : La Science antique et médiévale (Paris, 1966)
1, p. 633-636 and his « Réflexions sur les rapports entre théorie et pratique au Moyen Age », in
John E. Murdoch and E. D. Sylla ed. The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning (Dordrecht
and Boston, Mass., 1974) p. 470 ; Halleux, Les Textes, p. 74-79 ; A. Zimmerman, Methoden im
Wissenschaft und Kunst des Mittelalters (Berlin, 1970) ; and H. Roosen-Runge, « Farben- und
Malrezepte in frtihmittelalterlichen technologischen Handschriften », in E. Ploss et al. ed.
Alchemia: Idéologie und Technologie (Munich, 1970).

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 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON'S LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE

which would have been attractive to Panurge, who employs a number of the same
kinds of pranks. The section devoted to cipher couples a theoretical statement with
distinctiones, « De variis modis scribendi », describing several codes and chemical
for secret writing, for example a type of invisible writing using dog gall and
wood, which can only be read at night, and the popular system of «
» writing (17). Each system is illustrated by the phrase « amen dico vobis » in the
type of cipher being discussed.
The author writes in the tradition of high hermeticism when he discusses the purpose
of these codes.
Quia sapientes habentes quedam secreta in libris suis variant ita scripturam ut licet multi illos
libros habeant non tamen sciunt légère nec intelligere verbi gratia Alkmonute (possibly a
legendary father of alchemy) in libris suis imponunt septem metalla, septem nomina plane-
tarum, verbi gratia aurum vocatur Sol, argentum Luna, ferrum Mars, argentum vivum Mer-
curius, stagnium Jupiter, cuprium Venus, plumbium Saturnus. Et ideo ita faciunt quia si
expresse et distincte scriberent suos libros, tune unus fatuus habens libros suos posset facere
opus unius sapientissimi et sic vilificaretur ars quod est inconveniens obscurant super libros
suos in modo scribendi ut iam dicam. (18)
That such ciphered passages give the possessor of the manuscript power as well as
practical knowledge is clear from the Secreta Secretorum, which shows Aristotle
Emperor Alexander physiognomy as a science useful for choosing councillors
and servants : « O Alexander ... the science of physiognomy is one of the subtle and
speculative and intellectual sciences which it is necessary ... to know and understand,
because of the great need in which thou standest when appointing men to stand
thee » (19). In addition to physiognomy, other sources of knowledge about people
— for example, palmistry, which is included in the John de Foxton manuscript as
a way of discovering sexual vices in women, or astrology by which natural weaknesses
might be discovered and exploited — give the initiated an advantage over other men.
The user of a cipher system can make this power inaccessible to those who literally
or metaphorically do not possess the key.
Finally, the most serious reason for denying casual readers access to specialized
knowledge was the danger of misuse. This seems to have been the operative reason
behind John de Foxton's encodement of words having to do with blood-letting and
obstetrics, as we shall see. Roger Bacon's famous formula for gunpowder in which the
crucial passage is in code, is another instance of potentially dangerous information
being kept from those who might use it to do harm.

(17) See for example, Aberdeen Univ. Libr. MS. 123, f. 68V. A substitution alphabet cipher
concealing a Middle English gloss occurs in similar tables in Cambridge, Peterhouse Coll. MS. 75,
Chaucer, Equator ie of the Planets, f. 63V.
(18) F. 9v-10r. The Libellus de Alchemia gives « Alchimo » as eponymous inventor, c. 2. See also
Halleux, Les Textes, p. 45-6. On this widespread way of concealing the names of the metals,
see J. R. Partington, « Report of Discussion upon Chemical and Alchemical Symbolism », Ambix
1 (1937) 61-64, and Pearl Kibre, « The Alkemia minor ascribed to Albertus Magnus », Isis 32
(1949), p. 270. Ganzenmuller, L' Alchimie, offers a passage on the subject from Petrus Bonus,
p. 142-43.
(19) Robert Steele ed. and tr. Roger Bacon, Secreta Secretorum (Oxford, 1920) p. 219, n. 2.

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 JOHN BLOCK FRIEDMAN

Both Bacon and the English author of the Secretum Philosophorum employ codes in
their works (20), and it will be instructive to see what sorts of ciphers John de Foxton
may have been familiar with when he came to construct his own system. Bacon's
Tractatus Trium Verborwn or three letters to the alchemist John of Paris concludes
each epistle with a line in the earliest and the most popular type of cipher in the Middle
Ages. It is traceable to Rhabanus Maurus, who in the De Inventione Linguarum had
outlined a system in which vowels were rendered by the consonants immediately
before or after them (21). An English treatise, B.L. Sloane 416, dated 1455, offers a
convenient formulation : « sic inteligitur bat bow wryftyste bat may not be rede first
by a for b and b for x. » (22) Bacon's Tractatus employs this letter shift cipher in a
fashion to conceal the identities of letter writer and recipient with the slight
difference that z stands for a and that x does not appear. In B.L. Cotton Julius D. v,
an epistle ends « vcrdhsm menezdhsm Rlicrh Azdsn ad fratrem Hlgznncm de Ozrht
alk », which means tercium mendacium Rogeri Bacun ad fratrem Iohannem de Paris
Alkemista (23). With this form of enciphering, the concealment is minimal and the
persevering reader will soon learn the names in question.
The Secretum Philosophorum gives a recipe combining a cipher and a form of secret
writing. The first hides the second. As this work is so little known and the recipe
is so charming, it may be useful here to offer it in its entirety. The author describes a

(20) The alchemical discussion employing cipher which ends Bacon's De Perspectiva in Vat. Lat.
3102, f. (new numbering) 28-28v, is in a different though nearly contemporary hand ; its relation
to the text is unclear. See John Manly, « Roger Bacon and the Voynich MS. », Speculum 6 (1931)
p. 360-373.
(21) This treatise appears in PL 112, 1579, but W. Levison, England and the Continent in the
Eighth Century (Oxford, 1966) gives a more accurate text on p. 291.
(22) Sloane 416 is a collection of recipes and experiments. The tract in question occurs on f. 155
and is titled « Oculte scribendi modus ». The MS. has been discussed by C. L. Eastlake,
for a History of Oil Painting (London, 1847) Vol. 1, p. 90-93, who believes the compiler
was an English monk studying in Venice and Padua. The author of a tract in Sloane 351 uses a
similar system but advocates the use of distractors and nonsense groups. « Item when ii conso-
nantz come togeder which wil not be sowned then shall be set bitwene hem or next afore or after
as hit fall this silable ex the which shal stande for nought save for the sownyng of the word ».
f. 15V. Such systems were in very early use in England. See Craig Williamson ed. The Old
Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1977) riddle 34, p. 89 and 248-9.
(23) See Singer, A Catalogue, I, item 192 for MSS. The cipher phrases are briefly discussed by
Manly, « Roger Bacon », p. 372. The Tractatus is ascribed to Bacon by Singer, « The Alchemical
Writings », p. 83. Such letter shift ciphers used to conceal identities were relatively common.
In B. L. Cotton Titus D.xxvii we read « Frbtfr hxmkllimus ft mpnbchxs Aflsknxs me scrkpskt »,
that is Frater humillimus et monachus Aelsinus me scripsit. The passage is published by Walter
de Gray Birch ed. Liber Vitae : Register and Martyrology of New Minster and Hyde Abbey,
(London, 1892), p. 275. Laurenziana MS. Ashburnam 37 conceals the scribe's name : « Ant-
pnixs blbnqui de aptb » ; see A. Thomas « Deux examples de Cryptographie dans des manuscrits
Méridionaux, », Annales du Midi 38 (1926) p. 428. A much more complex system for concealing
the identity of a Catharist bishop occurs in Florence B.N. Conventi soppressi I.ii.44, f. 51r where
the vowels are replaced by numbers and also by the consonants which precede them. See C.
Thouzellier ed. Livres des Deux Principes (Paris, 1973) p. 29, 31.

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 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON'S LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE

form of writing employing urine — he hides the word by a letter shift cipher — and
dust :
« Accipe xskovn et scribe cum ea super manum tuam et cum siccatum fuerit, nichil appare-
bit in mundo. Cum autem légère volueris, sperge super locum scriptum cineres vel pulverem
aliquem et frica parum cum pulvere super locum et dele tune pulverem et statim apparebit
littera. Per ilium autem modum potes op time jocari cum sedeas inter socios et hoc sic.
Scribe in diversis locis super manum tuam, 'non', et fac siccare et si vis burdare dicendo te
posse scire utrum sit virgo vel non, fac eum cum quo vis burdare scilicet sciendo utrum sit
virgo, spergere pulverem super locum super quem scribitur 'non' et figure crucem in
et hoc ne percipiatur cautela post depone pulverem, et apparebit ibi scriptum 'non',
putabitur autem illud a multis fieri per artem magicam et hoc propter signum crucis ». (f.
13) 0").
It will be seen that without the knowledge of the key ingredient in this recipe, the
process is incomprehensible ; in this respect the ciphered « urinum » resembles the pent-
angle shaped « ke}r » to the physiognomy chapters in the Liber Cosmographiae.
This method of throwing a text slightly out of focus through the use of cipher for
words in the rubric position is interestingly seen in Bodleian Digby MS. 69, c. 1300
a collection of experiments of various kinds in which a single group of recipes —
of special value — is encoded, and introduced by the phrase « Expérimenta
quadam in quibus occurrunt multa verba scripta in forma occulta omissis vocabulis ».
(See PI. 22 b). The scribe has also enciphered certain important words within the text
of the recipe as well. Thus we find at the top of the page, the rubrics « Ut mulier de
facili parit » and « Virginalis » — an inflamation of the female genitalia — combined
with a ciphered text word, « vulve ». The next formula, « Ut de facili mulier possit
impregnari », also encodes « vulvam » within the text. The last recipe within the group
« si vis argentum facere » (f. 201) shows that the scribe regarded both gynecological
and alchemical matter as similar, at least in their need for cipher. Here the cipher
systems alternate between the letter shift and a method of using virgulae to replace
vowels ; with sufficient time the system can be easily decoded.
We have looked so far at a group of ciphers which employ various combinations of
the Roman alphabet to hide meaning. But there were other ciphers in use at the same
time involving artificial alphabets, and they had a proud and ancient lineage. Many
medieval writers imputed magical, apotropaic, and theurgic powers to Greek, Hebrew,
and Arabic letters, as well as to the mythical alphabets of sages like Aethicus and Ar-
tephius. An alphabet that the Latins could not read was presumed to be not merely
different from the Roman but purposely mysterious and secret. These qualities could
be achieved, of course, by the creation of artificial alphabets designed to look like
those whose mystery was hallowed by antiquity. An example of such thinking may
be found in another of the manuscripts in Trinity College, Cambridge, R. 14.30, a
collection of thirteenth and fourteenth-century medical recipes in Provençal, French,

(24) See on games of this sort, Bruno Roy, « The Household Encyclopedia as Magic Kit : Medieval
Popular Interest in Pranks and Illusions », The Journal of Popular Culture 14 (1980) 60-69.

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 JOHN BLOCK FRIEDMAN

and Latin. A recipe « ad fluxum sanguinis » (25), contains several magical letters which
contribute to its efficacy.
R. Derolez has pointed to the medieval interest in exotic alphabets in a number of
English manuscripts (26), especially B.L. Cotton Tiberius D. xviii, which contains in
the first twelve folios alphabets of all nations, each with a brief discussion. In addition
to scripts close to home, such as Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon, the compiler also
collects such exotic examples as Syriac, Gothic, Persian, and runes, as well as the
mythical alphabet of Aethicus. Mandeville's Travels, however, is the most familiar
of the works paying tribute to the alphabets of other nations (27). Note the loving
and imaginative care with which the scribe of the Egerton manuscript has attempted
to reproduce the « Saracen » alphabet (28).
With such a strong interest in mysterious letter forms well established in the Middle
Ages, it is not surprising that various writers attempted to construct ciphers involving
artificial alphabets. These codes, as Bacon rightly pointed out, are « the hardest to
break ». In his Arts and Secrets of Nature Bacon used just such a cipher. This is the
famous «gunpowder» recipe, where a key portion of the Latin formula is given in a
cipher made of non-Roman letters ; it has never been satisfactorily interpreted (See
PL 22 c). The text of B.L. Sloane 2156 reads « item pondus totum sit 30 sed tamen
salpêtre KB K^4 hopo çpcadlklG £f vel phosphoris. Scilicet et sic faciès tonitrum
et choruscationem si scias artificium» (f. 116V). The enciphered and so «missing»
ingredient in this recipe is essential to the formula. Without it, even with the aid of
the rubric, which lets us know what is being made, we still cannot complete the
process (29).
Contemporary with Bacon's recipe are a set of cipher glosses in a manuscript of Roger
of Salerno's Chirurgia, now in the Yale Medical Library (30), containing letters from
the Greek alphabet mixed with unconventional letter forms. The glosses in question

(25) This is Cambridge Trinity Coll. MS. R.14.30, f. 145. See generally, Bert Hansen, « Science
and Magic », in David Lindberg ed. Science in the Middle Ages (Chicago and London, 1978)
483-506.
(26) René Derolez, «Ogam, 'Egyptian', 'African', and 'Gothic' Alphabets», Scriptorium 5
(1951) especially p. 13-19.
(27) See on Mandeville's alphabets, Guy De Poergk, « Le Corpus Mandevillien du ms. Chantilly
699 », in G. De Poergk et al. ed. Fin du Moyen âge et Renaissance : Mélanges de philologie offerts
à Robert Guiette (Anvers, 1961) p. 31-32.
(28) Mandeville's Travels, B.L. MS. Egerton 1982, f. 59V.
(29) See Hime, « Roger Bacon and Gunpowder », p. 321-331 and Robert Steele, Nature 121,
(Feb. 11, 1928) p. 208. Hime's decipherment is based on a rather different form of the cipher
passage which appears in the MS. used by Brewer and is of little help with the cipher in Sloane
2156. On the whole question of Bacon's gunpowder recipe, see James R. Partington, A History
of Greek Fire and Gunpowder (Cambridge, Eng., 1960) p. 72-76.
(30) This is Yale Medic. Libr. MS. 10, S. de Ricci, Census of Medieval and Renaissance
in the United States and Canada (N.Y., 1935-40) Vol. 2, p. 2298. The glosses on f. 25r,
38V, 41V were published and discussed by George W. Corner, « A Thirteenth-Century Medical
Cryptogram », Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine 4 (1936) 745-750.

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 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON'S LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE

comprise three recipes, one for provoking menstruation, one for an anesthetic, and one
for « Greek fire » ; from a medical or military point of view, these formulae might
well seem to be such valuable possessions to the owner of the volume that he would
deem them worthy to be protected by cipher, especially if the book were often
by others.
Three key words in the recipe for provoking the menses (See PL 23 a) are concealed
by a cipher : the rubric « menstrua », and the two chief ingredients of the potion,
and scamonee. The reader must be able to decipher all three for the recipe to be
of any use because, without the complete rubric, it is hard to know what the recipe
is for, and conversely, without being able to identify the ingredients, knowing the
recipe's purpose is of little value. The sophistication of this system is enhanced by
the maker's use of the sounds of the Greek alphabet. For example, he employs omega
for the sound of o and double eta for the dipthong in scamonee. His m and n, moreover,
are based on reversed lunate sigma forms, the m being merely a doubling of the n.
Another form for m is a simple square.
Besides the Voynich manuscript — whose history is too well known to need
here, perhaps the most elaborate of the ciphers using a substitution alphabet
is that found in a fifteenth-century Italian treatise on alchemy now in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris. It is called Secretum de Thesauro experimentorum ymaginationis
hominum, and is attributed to the Paduan physician Giovanni Fontana (31), active
1395-1455. This work, entirely written in cipher with the exception of some of the
table of contents and the explicit, employs a completely artificial system bearing no
relation to any genuine alphabet. As can be seen from this representative page, (See

(31) The manuscript is discussed and its cipher system deciphered by H. Omont, « Un traité de
physique et d'alchimie du xve siècle en écriture cryptographique », Bibliothèque de l'École des
Chartes 58 (1897) 253-258. His « Nouvelles acquisitions du Département des Manuscrits de la
Bibliothèque Nationale pendant les années 1896-1897 », ibid., 59 (1898) p. 92 makes the
to Fontana. As the same cipher occurs throughout Munich, Staatsbibl. Cod. Icon. 242, in
which Fontana names himseif, we can assume that the Paris MS. is by him as well. The Munich
MS., Bellicorum Instrumentorum Libri was discussed by S. J. von Romocki, Geschichte der Ex-
plosivesstoffe (Berlin, 1895) 1, 231-40 ; G. Huelsen, « Der liber instrumentorum des Giovanni
Fontana », in Festgabe fur Hugo Blummer (Zurich, 1914) 507-516 ; and more recently by Frank
D. Praeger, « Fontana on Fountains », Physis 13 (1971) 341-360. A drawing from the Munich
MS. containing cipher has been published by Lynn White, Jr., « Medical Astrologers and Late
Medieval Technology », Viator 6 (1975) fig. 16 and p. 304. On Fontana, see generally A. Birken-
majer « Zur Lebensgeschichte und wissenschaftliche Tàtigkeit von Giovanni Fontana (1395 ?-
1455 ?) », in his Études d'histoire des sciences et de la philosophie du Moyen âge (Wroclaw, 1970)
529-550, and M. Whitrow éd. Isis Cumulative Bibliography (London, 1971) 1.424. A group of
alchemical ciphers using substitution alphabets similar in conception to that of Giovanni
occurs in Heidelberg Univ. Bibl. MS. 597. Selections are published by W. Wattenbach,
« Alchymey teuczsch », Anzeiger fur Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit 8 (August) 1869, p. 266, and
discussed by Gerhard Eis, «Alchymey teuczsch », Ostbairische Grenzmarken, Passauer Jahrbuch
1 (1957) 11-16. An alchemical cipher Ms. of the Renaissance with a self-consciously «medieval» look
is discussed in. J. V. Williams, « Un Example de traité d'alchimie cryptographique : Le Tresoro, »
Fédération archéologique et historique de Belgique. Annales 44, 2 (18-22 August, 1976) p. 619-622.

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 JOHN BLOCK FRIEDMAN

PI. 23 b), the author uses a series of circles and straight lines to replace vowels and
consonants. Thus i is figured by o and the other vowels are shown by circles with
strokes to left, right, top and bottom. The consonants are similarly constructed, with
k for example, more or less normal but with an additional arm in the middle to serve
as a distractor. The maker also uses for the reader's further mystification, an
placement of the macron in suspensions and abbreviations, placing the mark
signifying a dropped m or n under rather than over the word in question.
Though Fontana's Secretum contains several chapters on new alphabets and ciphers,
once uncoded they prove to outline only the letter shift systems we have already seen.
One feels, in fact, after deciphering these chapters, that he was rather over impressed
by the complexity of his own cipher alphabet, and, as is characteristic of many
users of scientific ciphers, found the system of greater interest and significance
than the text it was intended to conceal. Because so many of these scientific ciphers
seem mainly to have been intended to display their makers' hermetic ingenuity, having
no practical purpose, they are often used only at the beginning of a work or very
sporadically thereafter.
An exception to this statement can be made for John de Foxton, who was equally
interested in both the theory of his substitution alphabet and in its practical use.
Indeed, aside from that of Giovanni Fontana, of the scientific ciphers known to me,
John's is the only one used with a consistant plan over a long period of time and
throughout a large part of a manuscript. It shows us something of the impact of
John's reading in hermetic theory and the influence of his contemporaries upon his
book.
John de Foxton seems to have been born in either the hamlet of Foxton in Os-
motherly near Northallerton, Yorkshire, or in another hamlet of that name in the
North Riding. He was ordained as a subdeacon in York Cathedral in 1388 on the title
of the Abbey of Jervaulx, though there is no reason to believe that he ever exercised
the rights of his title (3a). As the usual age for ordination was 19 (33), he must have been
born about 1369. Some 18 years pass before we have another mention of him, now
instituted in 1406 to the vicarage of Fishlake, in the East Riding. Presumably he
was a chaplain before, and even after, his institution. In 1420 he exchanged Fishlake
vicarage for one not far away in Laughton-en-le Morthen. As the living of Fishlake
was worth a bit over 13 pounds a year and that of Laugh ton only 6 pounds (34), John,
like so many of his fellow clergy in the early fifteenth century, may have been engaging
in some near simoniacal transaction^5). Since Robert Neville, (1404-1457) bishop of

(32) On the vexed question of the exact significance of these tituli, see H. S. Bennett, « Medieval
Ordination Lists in the English Episcopal Registers », in J. Conway Da vies ed. Studies Presented
to Sir Hilary Jenkinson (London, 1957) p. 20-34 and Peter Heath, English Parish Clergy on the
Eve of the Reformation (London and Toronto, 1969) p. 17-21.
(33) Heath, English Parish Clergy, p. 15.
(34) See A. Hamilton Thompson ed. Fasti Parochiales (Wakefield, 1933) Vol. 1, s.v. Fishlake,
Laughton-en-le Morthen.
(35) Heath, English Parish Clergy, p. 32-47.

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 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON'S LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE

Salisbury and Durham, was the prebendary of Laughton, it is possible that John had
some connection — perhaps of long standing — with this important family. In
1430/31 John becomes rector of Dinnington, a benefice he resigned in 1434. He then
disappears from the records of the York diocese (36). Possibly his resignation was
prompted by a more lucrative offer of a chaplaincy made by his patron. As he would
have been about 65 years of age in 1434, it is probable that he was dead by 1450.
It is his early career, however, which concerns us. The sources used in the
of the Liber Cosmographiae indicate that John did much of his writing in the
Augustinian Priory Library at York, which had the richest collection of books in
the north, to judge by the late 14th-century catalogue of its holdings. It contained
656 volumes incorporating 2100 separate works (37), many of which were extremely
rare or unusual in England at this time.
More than 220 of these books were contributed to the Priory Library by John
Erghome, who was a member of the society and later Master Regent and Prior of the
York house in 1385, just at the most impressionable period of John de Foxton's
development. Erghome was born of a noble family in the East Riding
about 1330 and went to Oxford in 1372 (38). His wealth enabled him to amass a
large collection of books, among which were Greek and Hebrew codices.
Erghome had a strong interest in alchemical, prophetic and hermetic subjects, as
can be seen from the catalogue, which indicates his particular donations. He is best
known for a commentary on a collection of vaticinia relating to the reign of Edward
III and supposedly written by John of Bridlington. This commentary was done about
1370 and dedicated to a noble patron.
Venerabili domino et mira magnitudine extollendo, temporali praedito potestate, scrutinio
etiam excellenti Humfredo de Bohun ... Dei gratia humilitatis servus, si super consequentiae
notam caput miserationis velitis adjungere, nomen obscurem et obsequium salutare (39).

(36) The biographical information on John de Foxton presented in this paragraph was gathered
from the archiépiscopal registers of the Archdiocese of York held at the Borthwick Institute of
Historical Research and from the Dean and Chapter Act Books in the York Minster Library.
Ordination, BIHR Register 14, Thomas Arundel, 1388-1396, f. 10r. Institution to Fishlake,
BIHR Register 5a Sede Vacante, 1405-7, f. 287V. Exchange for Laughton, BIHR Register 18,
part I, Henry Bo wet, 1407-1423, f. 135V and DGAB L 2 (3) a f. 114V. Institution to and resignation
from Dinnington, BIHR Register 19, John Kempe, 1425-1452, f. 155 and 375.
(37) M. R. James, « The Catalogue of the Library of the Augustinian Friars at York », in
Ioanni Willis Clark Dicatus (Cambridge, England, 1909), 2-96. For recent discussions of
this library, see Francis Roth, The English Austin Friars (N.Y., 1966) Vol. 1, 369-413, and Joann
H. Moran, Education and Learning in the City of York 1300-1560 (York : Borthwick Papers
no. 55, 1979) p. 26-8.
(38) See Roth, The English Austin Friars, p. 409-413.
(39) Thomas Wright ed. Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History (Rp. Millwood,
N.Y., 1964 : Rolls Series 14) Vol. 1, p. 123. For a discussion of the extent of Erghome's connection
with the « Bridlington » material, see Paul Meyvaert, « John Erghome and the Vaticinium
Roberti Bridlington », Speculum 41 1966) 656-664.

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 JOHN BLOCK FRIEDMAN

The code by which Erghome hides his identity is a witty one : that which indicates a
consequence is, of course, ergo, and the head of mercy is its first letter, m, thus Ergom.
John Erghome was obssessed with secrecy in the best hermetic fashion ; he tells
that
Ut evidentius, domine intelligantur quae praetendo, non audeo opponere aperte nomen
meum in epistola hac vobis destinata, primo propter linguas invidorum, secundum propter
potestates dominorum, et tertio propter indignationem sapientum et discretorum ... (p. 124).
After the letter dedicatory to Bohun, Erghome offers three preambles to the
itself, the second of which concerns ten different ways to hide the meanings
in a prophecy. A number of these methods have to do with the changes it is possible
to make on a name — as Erghome makes upon his own — for purposes of

If John de Foxton was composing the Liber during the period of Erghome's
he would have been able to augment his knowledge of Bacon's theoretical remarks
about the ciphers and even their practical application, by the influence of Erghome's
sensibility and fascination with hermetica. That he knew and used Erghome's letter
dedicatory and second preamble there can be no doubt, because at the end of the
prologue to the Liber Cosmographiae, he too refuses to name himself, ending the
with this request
... orantes pro Johanne fortissime Christo tonante, cuius nomen non pono, quia de fama
humana minime euro nee de gloria vana, potest tamen intellegi, si lector bene videat ...
(f. V).
The anagram «fortissime Xro tonante» hides Foxton and the technique seems to
correspond best to Erghome's « octava occultatio » which consists in cutting up the
words : « ponit enim aliquas syllabas unius dictionis primo, postea ponit aliam dictio-
nem inter illas syllabas et alias syllabas ejusdem dictionis » (p. 127).
Among the books in Erghome's collection was one we have had occasion to mention
earlier, the Secretum Philosophorwn, described as a « tractatus qui dicitur secretum
philosophorum divisum in 7 partes secundum quod pertractat 7 artes»(40). John de
Foxton used lengthy citations from this work in the astronomical portions of the Liber
Cosmographiae, and it is honored by the sole commendation he gives to any of the books
he uses in his compilation (41). He praises the Secretum for its dark or oblique mode
of presentation : « quia magna erudicio semper in figurativis scriptionibus et locutio-
nibus inventa ac ostenta est. Et quia nonulli rudes et indocti videntes Sécréta
citius detractant et scandalizant ea quam inde virtutes cumulant.» (c. 53,

(40) James éd. Fasciculus, p. 55.

(41) See M. B. Parkes, « The Influence of the Concepts of Ordinatio and Compilatio on the
of the Book, » in J. J. G. Alexander and M. T. Gibson ed. Medieval Learning and
: Essays Presented to Richard William Hunt (Oxford, 1976) p. 115-141, and Alistair
J. Minnis, « Late Medieval Discussions of Compilatio and the Role of the compilator », Beitrdge
zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur 101 (1979) 385-421.

230
 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON S LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE

f. 25V). His defense of this book, suggests, I believe, that it meant more to him than
merely another source to pillage for his compilation and shows him fully aware of
hermetic convention.
Let us now take a closer look at the manuscript of the Liber Cosmographiae and its
cipher. The manuscript was written by two scribes. The first and more professional
hand did the almanach and kalendar which precedes the Liber Cosmographiae in the
codex, as well as John's prologue to the work. No words in cipher appear in the hand
of this scribe (See PL 23 c) who exhibits a characteristic serif to his terminal s and e,
a long flourish to his medial r, a double stroke within the bow of large D, and good
control of letter forms and spacing (f. lr). He appears to have received his training in a
rather conservative and provincial milieu and seems not to have been influenced by
continental bâtarde tendencies, as there is no daggering of descenders in spite of the
late date of the codex and the overall appearance of the hand is quite vertical.
Apparently the Augustinian friars illuminated secular manuscripts for rich patrons
both on the continent and in England (42). A member of this order, for example, was
the « official » illuminator for Humphrey Bohun, sixth Earl of Hereford, who rebuilt the
Augustinian friars' church in London (43). As they were also well known as scribes,
it is quite possible that the York priory had something of a scriptorium and that
portions of the Liber Cosmographiae were copied there by a member of this order.
After the prologue, the second hand commences ; we can see from this passage
from chapter 46 on palmistry that it was a trained, (See PI. 24 b) clerical, but much
less professional hand, writing in a lamp black ink which has flaked in places, rather
than the gall ink of the first scribe. Certain of its characteristics are the round
s, the dot in the bow of the large D, a shorter flourish to the medial r, and somewhat
poorer control of spacing and size of letters especially at the base line (f. 21r).
This scribe copies sixty of the seventy-seven folios of the Liber Cosmographiae and
then returns the sheets to the first scribe, who, completing the Liber, also fills the
last pages of the codex with some historical tracts.
As we can see from the enciphered words in the chapter on the signs of the female
palm, John's cryptographic system is not as complex as that used by Giovanni Fon-
tana, but still offers a certain amount of difficulty to the reader. A seventeenth-
century key written on the flyleaf — perhaps by Archbishop Whitgift himself —
presents the fifteen letter forms schematically (See PI. 25 a). The cipher does not
distinguish, as do many others, between vowel and consonant, as there is a form for
each. In its employment of a reversed lunate sigma form, it has a certain affinity
with the cipher of the Roger of Salerno glosses we discussed earlier ; there we had seen
that m and n were developments of the same letter form, and here we see that e and

(42) See M. M. Bigelow, « The Bohun Wills, » The American Historical Review 3 (1896) p. 634,
and Roth, The English Austin Friars, p. 371-2.
(43) On the traditions of such scriptoria generally, see K. W. Humphreys, The Book Provisions
of the Medieval Friars 1215-1400 (Amsterdam, 1964) p. 70-71 and E. Stahleder, Die Handschriften
der Augustiner Eremiten und Weltgeistlichen in der ehemaligen Reichsstadt Windsheim (Wiirzburg,
(1963) p. 12-17 and items 54, 71, 72, 78, 83, 94, 95, 99, 102, 103, and 104.

231
 JOHN BLOCK FRIEDMAN

f are, similarly, modifications of the same letter, in the fashion of Fontana's cipher,
constructed by the addition of a cross stroke or a simple change in spatial position.
Q is simply a distorted letter with its tail moved from its right edge to the middle of
the letter. Only one letter form, h, is borrowed from conventional abbreviation,
in this case the familiar sign for « vel ». The scribe, moreover, readily employed the
standard patterns of Latin abbreviation in his cipher, as we see in words like earn and
gracilas.
At first glance, it might appear that the second scribe, responsible for the main
body of the MS., uses his code for reasons of prudery, since, the sexual frankness of
the enciphered passages on the signs of the woman's hand might have offended his
clerical contemporaries (44). These cipher passages come under the chapter heading
« signa particula in muliere » and give to the person who can understand them the
power of foreknowledge as well as character appraisal. In each case, the operative
word in the passage is put in cipher. Thus if an examination of the woman's palm
shows a discolored life line, this signifies that she fornicates with several men. By
examining the palm of a fasting woman, one can tell if she is a virgin. If the lines be
slender and pale then she is pure, and if they be wide and red or broken, then that
is an infallible sign that she is corrupt and that a man knew her that very night. Another
passage predicts a bad death for women with certain patterns of lines in their palms.
Besides these words, twelve of the one hundred thirty-five ciphered words in the
Liber Cosmographiae pertain to sexual, gynecological, or obstretrical matters. For
example, the words coitus, semen, spermata, secundinam, orificium, and menstruato
are all in cipher. But scribal prudery, attractive as it may at first appear, ultimately
proves an untenable explanation, because a much larger proportion of the ciphered
words are those which offer no potential offense to morals or modesty but relate to
the prognostic arts that need to be concealed from those who are unsuited to the
burden of knowledge. For example, in a distinctio on the way the midwife can manually
alter the position of the fetus in utero, the word « orificium » occurs in cipher nine
time as does « manu » (C. 27, D. 3, f. llv). By hiding the key words, the danger of
this information's misuse is alleviated, or at least the scribe may well have thought
so. Indeed, we saw the strongly prognostic cast to the passages on the signs of the
female palm, with their information on ways to determine virginity and the manner
of the owner's death. Though such prognostic arts are openly treated in some
of the period, for example, those dealing with physiognomy, cheiromancy,
phlebotomy, and judicial astrology, they could reasonably have struck the second scribe
as worthy of concealment. Some fifty-five of the words in cipher occur in the chapters

(44) Cipher is used in this way in a witty antimendicant quatrain in B.L. Harley 3362, f. 24 :
Fratres Carmeli / navigant in a bothe apud Eli ;
Non sunt in celi, / quia gxddbov xxkxx 3t pg ifmk
Omnes drencherunt, / quia sterisman non habuerunt.
Fratres cum knyvys / gop about and txxkx3v nfookt xx3xkt.
See on this poem, Garter Revard, « Deciphering The Four-letter Word in a Medieval Manuscript's
Satire on Friars », Verbatim 4 (1977) p. 1-3.

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 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON'S LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE

on physiognomy a*nd palmistry, while words relating to the science of phlebotomy

are encoded mainly in the diagrams of a practical sort which offer the book's users
a bit of visual aid ; lists of veins and their locations account for thirty-nine of the
ciphered words.
An indication of the pains John took to keep his book inaccessible to the uninstructed
reader can be found in these physiognomy chapters, which occupy f. 13r to 19V. They
are preceded by and interspersed with four full page miniatures of the temperaments,
of which this picture of the choleric man is representative. (See PI. 24 a). To the left
of the picture will be found a list of characteristics which — except for the colors at
the top — do not immediately pertain to the temperament depicted and whose
meaningless repetition makes one doubt the sanity of the scribe. There is
however, a logic in this.
John breaks these physiognomy chapters down into a great many short
For example, chapter 33 on hair, consists of eleven of these. In the first
paragraph, the key word « capillus » is not given — it must be sought in the columns
to the left of the temperament pictures. This paragraph and those following in the
chapter then, merely give the quality or color of hair without ever using the word
itself. Chapter 34 alternates this method with the use of part of a key word in cipher.
Thus the chapter opens with the word « caput » to be supplied from the temperament
page and then a score of paragraphs in which the first syllable of « caput » is given
in cipher and the second in ordinary Latin. That this technique was carefully
is shown in chapter 37 which deals with the forehead. The first word « frons »
of the first paragraph must be supplied from the temperament page ; five paragraphs
later we learn that « ruga in froute fit propter calidum ». (f. 17r). Even the change in
case has been taken into account and thus nowhere in the actual chapter does a form
of frons occur which could allow the uninstructed reader to make sense of the list of
qualities of character signified by different sorts of foreheads.
Much the same sort of thing occurs in a series of chapters predicting the fortunes of
persons born under the various astrological signs, and giving recommendations for the
improvement of their lot. These fortunes were relatively common in late English
scientific compendia ; indeed John de Foxton took them over verbatim from slightly
earlier texts (45). If a person had the misfortune to be born in an infelicitous
there were certain things he could do to mitigate his situation, reciting certain
of the psalms during appropriate planetary hours for example, or writing phrases
from the Gospel of John on parchment and carrying them on his person. One collection
of such fortunes in Trinity College, Cambridge MS. 0.9.10 gives this «remedy» for
nativities in March « et si evasit vel eciam voluit evadere ista periculosa, portet super
se istum psalmum 'omnes gentes plaudite manibus'» (46). John de Foxton lists these

(45) See for example B.L. Arundel MS. 359 f. 19V-25V and Cambridge, Trinity Coll. MS. 0.9.10,
f. 67.
(46) F. 67. Other remedies in these fortunes involve writing phrases from the gospels on a piece
of paper to be worn on the person ; « liberabitur ab infortuniis », f. 67V.

233
 THE CIPHER ALPHABET OF JOHN DE FOXTON S LIBER COSMOGRAPHIAE

psalms in a diagram in which the key rubric word « remedium » is given in cipher so
that the tags from the psalms themselves would be of no use to the uninstructed
(table 12, f. 55V).
His section on fortunes is divided, as is commonly the case in other manuscripts,
into those for men and for women. Each fortune is introduced by the rubric « homo
natus » or « mulier nata ». But as we can see from an example of a typical fortune
(See PI. 25 b), since the rubric is in cipher (C.69, f. 42V), a casual reader would have
a good deal of trouble determining what was being talked of or making use of the
remedies. Here is another fortune concerning a nativity which will be familiar to
some readers as that of Chaucer's Wife of Bath, who was born when Venus was in
the house of the Bull. Such a woman will be terrified by malign spirits and should sleep
with a cushion bearing the names of the four arkangels under her head. She should
fumigate the corners of her house with incense, and then using holy water to extinguish
it, sprinkle the mixture about at night in order to be free of demons (47). This
information, of course, would be quite obscure to a person who could not read
the rubic « mulier nata ».
Let us sum up what we have seen so far. That John was interested generally in
hermeticism with its emphasis on the protective power of cipher and obscure
and on the importance of dividing adepts from foolish or ignorant persons I
have already shown. Presumably these interests were fostered by his connection
with the Augustinian Priory Library and possibly with John Erghome. A rather
long period, by medieval standards, passed between his ordination and the
of his first benefice (48), but his institution to the vicarage of Fishlake and the
completion of the Liber Cosmographiae were close enough in time to suggest that he
may well have pleased a patron with his literary work. It is hard to imagine that
an unbeneficed John de Foxton could have completed this book at his own cost
one, for the work is far too sumptuous with respect to materials and illustrations.
Though the colophon of the Liber Cosmographiae gives a subscription and an
connecting the work with the Trinitarians, it is in a different hand than the
large formal hand which writes the explicit of the text. The nature of the Liber
moreover, was not well suited to this small and unlearned order (49). It
does not contain the kind of specific medical or herbal knowledge which would have
been of use to the brothers. So too, the proto-humanist concern with the figura of the

(47) Chapter 80, f. 51r. W. G. Black, Folk Medicine (London, 1883) p. 128 prints a somewhat
similar charm for an accouchement : « There are four corners of her bed ; / Four angels at her
head ».
(48) Heath, English Parish Clergy, p. 36.
(49) See on this subject, A. G. Little, « Trinitarian Friars of Knaresborough », in The Victoria
History of the Counties of England : Yorkshire (Rp. Folkstone and London, 1974) Vol. 3, p. 296-
300, and Bernard Jennings ed. A History of Harrowgate & Knaresborough (Huddersfield, 1970)
p. 103-108. Aside from the Liber Cosmographiae, only B.L. Egerton 3143, a 15th century life
of St. Robert, and Oxford Bodl. Libr. MS. Rawlinson D. 938, a 14th-century kalendar are known
to survive from Knaresborough ; they are utilitarian and undistinguished productions.

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 JOHN BLOCK FRIEDMAN

pagan gods — large portions of the manuscript are taken from John Ridwall's Ful-
gentius Metaforalis (50) — as well as the beautiful pictures themselves, perhaps by
the hand of John Siferwas (51), a well known Dominican illustrator from the
of England, do not seem in keeping with what we know of the Yorkshire
And the name of the putative founder of this house, « St. » Robert Flower,
a hermit who lived on the bank of the Nyd near the site of the Trinitarian Priory, is
absent from the York kalendar which begins the work (52).
We must look then, to a wealthy patron with an interest in hermetica, and one who
was certainly let in on the « secrets » of the work. He must have paid for the copying
of some of the book (53), while John de Foxton most probably copied the parts
the cipher. Granted, it is possible that John gave the work to two different
scribes with directions regarding encipherment in the rough copy, or that one of the
scribes decided to encipher the middle folios on his own. It seems more reasonable,
though, that John himself would have undertaken the transcription of that section
rather than entrust it to a less qualified person. And his demonstrated interest in
hermeticism would favor that approach. That a scribe would have decided to encipher
certain parts of the manuscript on his own authority is hard to believe, since this
would imply a far greater intimacy with the work, its contents, and hermetic
than we could assume in an atelier scribe who copies for money or duty. The
ease with which a Middle English word, « cramp » in chapter 69 on the fortunes of
women born in Aquarius is not only put into cipher, but abbreviated in the process,
suggests that the cipher maker was also the writer. For the reasons I have stated
then, I believe that John de Foxton created and employed this unusual substitution
alphabet, perhaps to flatter and to win the esteem of his patron.
University of Illinois John Block Friedman
Urbana, Illinois

(50) See John Block Friedman, « John de Foxton's Continuation of Ridwall's Fulgentius
», Studies in Iconography 8 (1982).
(51) See John Block Friedman, « John Siferwas and the Mythological Illustrations for the Liber
Cosmographiae by John de Foxton », Speculum 58 (1983) to appear. For an idea of the
of these illustrations, see the color portrait of Sol reproduced as pi. 40 of Marcel Thomas,
The Golden Age: Manuscript Painting at the Time of Jean, Duke of Berry (N.Y., 1979).
(52) It should be admitted, however, that Rawlinson D. 938 does not comemmorate St. Robert,
though it clearly was in use at Knaresborough during the time with which we are concerned ;
it notes, for example, the rise of the Nyd as high up its banks as Robert's legendary tomb.
(53) On the subject of literary patronage, see generally, Karl J. Holzknecht, Literary Patronage
in the Middle Ages (Rp., N.Y., 1966) and Richard Firth Green, Poets and Princepleasers :
Literature and the English Court in the Late Middle Ages (Toronto, 1980).

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