Concerning the bi-literal cypher of Francis Bacon discovered in his works

by Elizabeth Wells Gallup

There has been a slight misunderstanding regarding the method of deciphering. Both ways suggested by the critic were tried in the beginning, as well as other methods, but the one finally adopted was found to be most expeditious. I have many times given this in detail, perhaps to some of your readers.

The Italic letters of a page or two of the text were first copied in consecutive order by an operator using a typewriting machine that, arranged to space after each fifth letter, automatically formed the requisite cipher groups. When sufficient study had made me familiar with the forms and classification of letters in the book—sometimes a matter of days and even weeks—I placed a mark under the copied letters indicating the fount to which each Italic letter belonged. Tentative divisions were required to ascertain the correct grouping, and to determine the starting point, but when these had been unmistakably found, the copying would be resumed and the sheets containing the transcribed Italics thus properly grouped—but always in their consecutive order as they stand in the books—would be brought to me.

Having in the meantime memorized the alphabets, I noted each 'b fount’ letter and placed a stroke (/) under the corresponding letter on the typewritten sheet. All the others, belonging to the 'a fount,’ were marked with a short dash underneath, by an assistant, and the resulting bi-literal letter was then set down. This was the MS. to which I referred, and it is of this that “critic” facetiously asks: “What need of MSS. if the cypher was already embodied in the printed texts?”

Had he been at all familiar with ciphers he would have known they are not to be read at a glance. They are purposely made obscure, and are designed to be impossible to decipher by those not possessing the key, and difficult in any case.

Before reviewers cite Mr. Lee as authority upon the cipher, they should know whether or not his premises are correct. Mr. Lee says: “Italic and Roman types are never intermingled in the manner that would be essential if the words embodied Bacon’s bi-literal cypher.”—this shows, as I have before pointed out, in print and otherwise, that Mr. Lee misapprehends the essentials. The Roman and Italic types are not intermingled to form bi-literal letters. From 1579 to 1623, a period of forty-four years, no Roman type was employed for cipher purposes. On pages 66-67 of the Bi-literal Cypher reference is made to their use in a few short passages, only, of the later publications—the preliminary pages of the First Folio, and of Vitae et Mortis, etc. Mr. Lee is, therefore, not good authority, because he does not understand the principles of the cipher, and, drawing his conclusion from false premises, declares the cipher non-existent that I know does exist.

My critic says: “Just as in the Spenserian passage, the Gallupian b-type has been somehow introduced into the reproduced text [of the Novum Organum] so as to give the desired cipher-groups: but how, and by whom?”

If he refers to the 'b type’ of the photographic facsimiles, it is a frank acknowledgment that he can see the differences in the types. He could, therefore, become a cipher expert if he chose. The 'b-type’ was introduced when the originals were printed, the one in 1620, the other in 1591.

If the reference is to the passages that were set up in modern type by our printers, for the purpose of illustrating the method of deciphering, the answer is in the statement itself. The two founts were purposely selected with differences sufficiently marked to be apparent to the dullest vision.

The facsimiles were omitted from the third edition of the book, not because they proved too much but too little. In spite of the care taken to secure accuracy, some distinctive differences were lost, and, as a consequence, deciphering from the reproductions, was much more difficult than from the originals, therefore not suited to novices in the art.

Our critic makes a misstatement in saying that one section of the book “purports to be a translation of Homer’s Iliad made by Bacon and buried in cipher in Burton’s 'Anatomy of Melancholy.’”