Frederick I of Prussia's Transposition Cipher

F.91-92 (DECODE R8772) is a letter signed "Frederic R." (King Frederick I of Prussia) and the name "Il Capitaneo Moyse Ceffis" in the endorsement is probably the recipient.

2-7-8
cel cier Ray en suf je sou le en ne me fer se hayt cy cor que mon et roys ant je eu vous trant vous tous un vient ne aves des as jours bon vous foy eue crie seu recog voya re de avec re re naissent ge par mer la moy en que vous
adieu cher capitaneo Moyse Ceffis et sourene vous tousjour de un Roy quil a affection pour vous
Frederic R.

(8)	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
par	cel	le	cy	je	vient	vous	re
mer	cier	en	cor	eu	ne	foy	de
la	Ray	ne	que	vous	aves	eue	avec
moy	en	me	mon	trant	des	crie	re
en	suf	fer	et	vous	as	seu	re
que	je	se	roys	tous	jours	recog	naissent
vous	sou	hayt	ant	un	bon	voya	ge

From this, the key "2-7-8" at the beginning of the ciphertext may indicate that the decipherer should fill a matrix of 7 rows and 8 columns, vertically column by column, starting from the 2nd column.

But the next piece indicates the meaning of the first digit "2" may be more complex.

Frederick I of Prussia (2)

F.93-94 (R8773) is also a letter from King Frederick of Prussia, endorsed "Pour le Seignoro Capitano Moyse Ceffis".

3-14-8
neo es ren coup a ette plein cy que hait cor hait seure recog que la criet deue de he jes je je te eune te que nais vous vos de et ple reu vos vous songe fort foy eun je sent maves tre Made je sier se tre peu souvent de pen hereu sere pour donne ta ves biens bau ge vous di rer sou en sou as vie fer pi ma ette avec voya que ce seu je voir vous vous ma suf Ca vous ma pries vostre mies sen as et res je et te bau cher que bourg ap que or ab biens a vous vous dant voyage tou le et suis
Vostre bon Roy
Frederic

Although the key "3-14-8" is written at the beginning, if the key is applied with the interpretation above, the resulting text does not make sense. However, connection of some syllables is obvious (e.g., "sou-hait", "bau-coup", "as-seure", "recog-nais-sent", "pen-dant", "ap-pries", "voya-ge") and the correct arrangement of the columns can be found without much trouble. (Some adaptation was required because of some cells encompassing two segments ("a ette", "a vous").)

(8)	(7)	(6)	(5)	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
cher	Ca	pi	ta	neo	la	vos	tre
que	vous	ma	ves	es	criet	de	Made
bourg	ma	ette	biens	ren	deue	et	je
ap	pries	avec	bau	coup	de	ple	sier
que	vostre	voya	ge	a ette	he	reu	se
or	mies	que	vous	plein	jes	vos	tre
ab	sen	ce	di	cy	je	vous	peu
biens	as	seu	rer	que	je	songe	souvent
a vous	et	je	sou	hait	te	fort	de
vous	res	voir	en	cor	eune	foy	pen
dant	je	vous	sou	hait	te	eun	hereu
voyage	et	vous	as	seure	que	je	sere
tou	te	ma	vie	recog	nais	sent	pour
le	bau	suf	fer	que	vous	maves	donne

As can be seen, "3" in the key does not simply mean starting from the 3rd column. It may have been a preconcerted code number (or actually a graphical symbol looking like "3") specifying the column order.

The plaintext begins with "Cher Capitaneo", addressing the recipient. The last two words "et suis" do not fit in the transposition matrix, but this should be part of the complimentary ending "et suis Vostre bon Roy, Frederic".

Report to Queen Anne?

F.88-90 (R8771) include another piece of transposition cipher in Italian, related to "Anna Regina D'Ingilterra", (plus another simple cipher).

Sacra M'ta di ANNA Regina D'Ingilterra &
30 - 49 - 71, questo n^o e la chiave per descifrare.

Ces ue à sua pon in mano le li ce tra ser ne nis al ta aria nir in di dersi sie del co se sa mae iue gotij tri Tro Ber mi qui ser ga li me li se cre ria sta ra che sap no tani ha da gnar bi ast sen se che tari sap con all non pia di ca ta di esta fra coris ti per solo che sta uos ra li mi chino es es es dato ma ci per cre sar pero le mae de cif ator li in ma ma man tra la to so pas tari uo sua on ta per che m' tra sua com uos li net ari za cre non di ino ques im uol et uos
Di V'ra Mta

Vmilis[si]mo: Deuotis[si]mo: Ossequios[si]mo ser^e fedelle
Il Capitano Moyse Ceffis, secretario della cifra di Cabinetto di S.M'ta Imperiale

This seems to be from Captain Moyse Ceffis, secretary of cipher of the "Cabinetto di S.M'ta Imperiale", to Queen Anne.

Although "30-49-71" is said to be the key ("chiave"), it cannot be applied in the way of King Frederick's cipher. The number of segments in the ciphertext is 129, which may, if I included an extra space, actually be 128=2⁷. So, the size of the matrix may be 16*8 or the like. (As it turned out, I typed an extra "es", and the actual number is 128.)

it was not so difficult to connect the pieces (even with little knowledge of Italian):

(The first clue was columns (6) and (5), in which two familiar words "cif-ra" and "mae-sta" close to each other strongly suggested these columns should be adjacent to each other.) Then, a little adjustment formed this into a perfect square:

As it turned out, the column ordering is the same as the second cipher of Frederick I.

F.88 says "Mando a V.E^za[?] questa lettera scritta in cifra accio neda[?] la qualita della cifra di Cabinetto di sua maesta Cesaria". From this, this seems to be a specimen of an Imperial cipher provided to the Queen (or actually her decipherer, Blencowe).

DECODE

Héder, M ; Megyesi, B. The DECODE Database of Historical Ciphers and Keys: Version 2. In: Dahlke, C; Megyesi, B (eds.) Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt 2022. Linkoping, Sweden : LiU E-Press (2022) pp. 111-114. , 4 p. [pdf]

Megyesi Beáta, Esslinger Bernhard, Fornés Alicia, Kopal Nils, Láng Benedek, Lasry George, Leeuw Karl de, Pettersson Eva, Wacker Arno, Waldispühl Michelle. Decryption of historical manuscripts: the DECRYPT project. CRYPTOLOGIA 44 : 6 pp. 545-559. , 15 p. (2020) [link]

Megyesi, B., Blomqvist, N., and Pettersson, E. (2019) The DECODE Database: Collection of Historical Ciphers and Keys. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Historical Cryptology. HistoCrypt 2019, June 23-25, 2019, Mons, Belgium. NEALT Proceedings Series 37, Linköping Electronic Press. [pdf]

Frederick I of Prussia's Transposition Cipher

Frederick I of Prussia (1)

Frederick I of Prussia (2)

Report to Queen Anne?

DECODE