Polygraphiae libri sex.

TRITHEMIUS, JOHANNES.

Michael Furter and Adam Petri]

[Basle

1518

First edition. Magnificent title elaborately historiated depicting the author presenting this work to Emperor Maximilian, alongside a bearded scholar with the keys to unlock the works’ secrets. Surrounding border with various men of the sciences. Many pages printed in red and black. Contains numerous codes and exotic alphabets.

Adams T-979.

First edition of the first book on ciphers and cryptography. Born Johann Heidenberg, the author (1462-1516) was a German Benedictine abbot and polymath who was active in the German Renaissance as a lexicographer, chronicler and cryptographer. He had considerable influence on the development of early modern occultism. See J.R. Wolfe, Secret Writing: The Craft of the Cryptographer (1970) pp. 112–14.