7.0155 Rs: Intelex; Ciphers (3/81)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 3 Sep 1993 10:06:53 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 7, No. 0155. Friday, 3 Sep 1993.


(1) Date: Thu, 02 Sep 93 15:26:00 PDT (18 lines)
From: <DGH@herald.divinity.yale.edu>
Subject: Intelex Corp. address

(2) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 08:46 EDT (25 lines)
From: <AQUILA@UTKVX>
Subject: Intelex E-texts

(3) Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 20:52:19 -0400 (38 lines)
From: rsmith1@cc.swarthmore.edu
Subject: Re: 7.0148 Qs: Caesarian Ciphers

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 93 15:26:00 PDT
From: <DGH@herald.divinity.yale.edu>
Subject: Intelex Corp. address

As requested, here are the particulars on Intelex Corp.:

InteLex Corporation
P.O. Box 1827
Clayton, GA 30525-1827
USA

Tel: (706) 782-7844
FAX: (706) 782-4489

E-mail: 70671.1673@compuserve.com

Duane Harbin
Yale Divinity Library
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------27----
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 08:46 EDT
From: <AQUILA@UTKVX>
Subject: Intelex E-texts

It is not quite accurate to say that Intelex uses whatever editions
are not in copyright. At least this is not the case for their
"Rationalists" database (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz). This utilizes
the Cottingham et al. (vols. 1&2, thus excluding the Letters) edition
for Descartes (Cambridge, 1984), the Ariew/Garber edition of Leibniz's
"Philosophical Essays" (Hackett, 1989), the Remnant/Bennett edition of
Leibniz's "New Essays" (Cambridge, 1982), and the Curley (vol. 1)
edition for Spinoza (Princeton, 1988).
These are excellent, up-to-date editions. The Folio VIEWS software
for managing the material also seems to me excellent. (Some time ago
the company announced they would also produce original-language
editions; I don't know what the status of this is.)
Regarding the Hume (and Locke and Berkeley) database, even though
the best or most standard editions are not used, pagination is provided
for correlation with them.
------------------------------------------------------
| Richard E. Aquila, Department of Philosophy |
| University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 |
| BITNET: aquila@utkvx INTERNET: aquila@utkvx.utk.ede |
------------------------------------------------------

(3) --------------------------------------------------------------49----
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 20:52:19 -0400
From: rsmith1@cc.swarthmore.edu
Subject: Re: 7.0148 Qs: Caesarian Ciphers (1/41)

I assume that you are familiar with David Kahn's book _The Codebreakers_;
check pages 81-84 (and the notes for those pages) for information on Greek
and Roman cryptography. Unfortunately, the citations leave something to be
desired in their precision. The reference to Caesar writing in cipher
occurs at Suetonius _Julius Caesar_ 56.6.2:

extant (sc. epistulae) et ad
Ciceronem, item ad familiares domesticis de rebus, in
quibus, si qua occultius perferenda erant, per notas
scripsit, id est sic structo litterarum ordine, ut nullum
uerbum effici posset: quae si qui inuestigare et perse-
qui uelit, quartam elementorum litteram, id est D pro
A et perinde reliquas commutet.

And to Augustus' inferior cipher at _Augustus_ 88.1.10:

quotiens autem per notas scribit, B pro
A, C pro B ac deinceps eadem ratione sequentis litteras
ponit; pro X autem duplex A.

Note that the cipher does not wrap around to the start of the sequence but
rather 'AA' is used in place of 'X', the last letter of the alphabet at
that time. I'm afraid that I cannot speak to the veracity of the
statements about writing in cipher, but if you like, I can do a search on
'per notas' on the PHI Latin CD and see what I come up with. I would also
check Lewis and Short and the Oxford Latin Dictionary s.v. nota for more
references.

Randy


Randall M. Smith
rsmith1@cc.swarthmore.edu