A Cryptographic Audit of Sir Francis Bacon’s Word Cipher (1623) · References
References — The Claim: Two Bacon Ciphers Point to the Same Play
As cited on the page
Sources. The biliteral recovery of FRANCIS ST ALBAN from the Troilus Prologue: Experiment One. The word-cipher keyhole orifex (df = 2 across the 29-work corpus, one occurrence in the Folio): The Complete Method.
Historical note. W. F. Friedman’s cryptologic career began at Riverbank on E. W. Gallup’s Baconian biliteral project; his repudiation of it came only late (The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined, 1957) — a reversal documented by A. Phoenix.
Research by Walter H. Wilkinson · gorhambury.org
Primary sources — 1623 and 1895
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (the First Folio), 1623 — Bodleian diplomatic TEI
The faithful transcription used for every count in the audit, including the orifex occurrence in Troilus & Cressida V.ii and the a/b type classification of the Prologue.
https://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
P. J. Sherman, “The Mystery of the Bacon Cipher — Dr. O. W. Owen’s Discovery Investigated,” Baconiana, April 1895
The clearest surviving eyewitness description of the Word Cipher method: guide words, key words, concordants, and the system of sorting and collecting.
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J. B. Millet, “Dr. Owen’s Cipher Method,” Baconiana, April 1895, pp. 92–101
Contains the self-concealed statement the project decodes in full, with the answer key published later in the same volume (printed p. 172).
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J. B. Millet, account of his visits to Dr. Owen’s Detroit workshop, Baconiana (later issue; exact issue and date still to be confirmed)
February 1893, c. 1894–95 and December 1895. Records the Spanish Armada extraction Millett performed himself, and his unsupervised examination of some 2,000 sheets of Owen’s extracts.
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Project documents — New Gorhambury
Experiment One
The biliteral recovery of FRANCIS ST ALBAN from the Troilus Prologue — the key half of the keystone claim.
The Complete Method, Step by Step
The eleven-step model, each step marked by how far it has been proven — where the orifex keyhole and its document frequency of 2 across the 29-work corpus are established.
The Price of the Door
The cost ledger of the Troilus & Cressida insertion: the physical anomalies in the Folio that someone paid for, at the last moment.
The Price of the Door — the cost ledger of the Troilus insertion
The Word Cipher Decoder
The live application: run the method across any of the 36 Folio plays and watch which doors open and which stay locked.
https://owen-door-tracker.pages.dev
Secondary literature
William F. Friedman & Elizebeth S. Friedman, The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined, Cambridge University Press, 1957
The standard repudiation of the Baconian cipher claims. Friedman’s own cryptologic career began at Riverbank on E. W. Gallup’s biliteral project; the reversal came only decades later.
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A. Phoenix, on Friedman’s Riverbank years and the timing of his reversal
Documents the gap between Friedman’s work on the biliteral project and his later public position.
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Carla Groenewegen, “Dr Orville Owen’s Cipher Wheel: Past, Present and Future,” Baconiana, Vol. 1 No. 6, June 2017
Contains the only published photograph of the Cipher Wheel canvas — the 300 × 225 pixel image the audit has had to work from.
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Elizabeth Wells Gallup, The Bi-literal Cypher of Sir Francis Bacon, Riverbank, 1900 and later editions
The decipherments whose method the audit examines on the biliteral side.
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Orville W. Owen, Sir Francis Bacon’s Cipher Story, five volumes, Detroit, 1893–1895
The published output of the wheel: the volumes the Decoder matches recovered fragments against, word for word.
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On Bacon’s motive
Margaret Barsi-Greene, I, Prince Tudor, Wrote Shakespeare (compiled from Owen’s Cipher Story), 1973
The source of the reading adapted on the keystone page: that by 1623 Bacon saw no one had decoded his concealments, and acted to preserve a twenty-year project.
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A Small Detail Which Exposes the Grand Design — System Architecture of the Great Cryptographic Hedge Maze, Part III
The project’s own statement of the motive and of the five standalone texts added at the end of the Folio, the longest being the Troilus Prologue.
Internet Shakespeare Editions — First Folio facsimile overview
The copy description giving the leaf counts quoted in that analysis: 454 leaves, with Troilus and Cressida at 15.
https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/overview/book/F1.html
Research by Walter H. Wilkinson · New Gorhambury · gorhambury.org
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