Title page of Cryptoryptomentyces et Cryptographiae, £4000 at Thomson Roddick.
Cryptoryptomentyces et Cryptographiae has been described as ‘arguably the most complete tome on esoteric cryptography ever published’, an esoteric claim to fame in itself.
This 1624 book on codes and secrets that draws largely on and extends an earlier work by Johannes Trithemius called Steganographia is said to be the work of one Gustavus Selenus. That is in fact a pseudonym used by Augustus the Younger, Duke of Brunswick- Lüneberg, who as well as this work on cryptography, had also written on chess – and gave his name to a design of chess pieces. Tables and illustrations of ciphers, codes and cryptograms illustrate the work.