Sources of Alchemical Cryptography

Abstract

This paper presents an initial overview of cryptographic sources relating to alchemy, an area that remains largely unexplored. Alchemists and chymists frequently encrypted short passages relating to recipes and experiments, obscured content using exotic foreign languages or custom shorthand, and created unique symbol codes. A survey of manuscripts reveals the diversity of sources in over 100 instances of ciphering in alchemical contexts, where ciphers were only one of several methods traditionally used to maintain secrecy. It serves as a starting point for further research, demonstrating the wealth of archival material related to alchemical cryptography –a goldmine yet untapped.