*
As we were saying...
*
=ABThe term *steganography* is derived from the Greek *steganos*,
"covered", and *graphein*, "to write". In the past, it was used
interchangeably with *cryptography*, but was revised in 1967 by
historian David Kahn to describe processes that conceal the
presence of a secret message, which may or may not be addi-
tionally protected by a cipher or a code. While codes and
ciphers are susceptible to cryptoanalysis because they are obvi-
ously an attempt at secret communication, missives covered
by steganography are disguised to appear like an innocent
message, thus hiding the presence of a message without nec-
essarily altering its content.=BB [p. 469, CODES, CIPHERS & OTHER
CRYPTIC & CLANDESTINE COMMUNICATION, by Fred B. Wrixon, Black Dog
& Leventhal Publishers, Inc., New York, 1998.]
*
To which I now add:
*
=ABPORTA, GIOVANNI(1535-1615)
*
[...]
*
Porta pioneered the solution method known as the probable
word. If the communiqu=E9 was suspected to be about treaty
dealings, words such as bargain, offer, negotiate, accept or
propose might be expected to be present. Awareness of the
spellings and likely sentence structure would aid analysts in
finding them and in identifying other terms associated with
them.=BB [*idem*, *ibidem*, p. 615]
*
This statement is the most appropriate description of the method
I eventually employed to pierce Nostradamus' secret manner of
writing.
*
Earlier, in another NewsGroup dedicated to cryptology, I was
bombarded with a thunder of objections, all revolving around the
most simple, clear, problem respecting the line-based cryptic
anagram, i.e., the huge number of possibly hidden solutions to
the printed text.
*
These guys use computers to crack codes and couldn't possibly
accept the notion that it was the originally published text which
could serve as a clue to the solution of the hidden text.
*
At the time, I was not aware that Porta had pioneered something
called the 'probable word' method of solution to a hidden text.
Just as Mr. Jourdain was using prose without knowing it, I was
using Porta's method without even realizing that it already had a
name, i.e., the 'probable word' method.
*
An original poem by Nostradamus appeared to be dealing with the
assassination attempt against former pope John Paul II, on May
13, 1981, and with the timing of that event, three days after
French Socialist Fran=E7ois Mitterrand had been elected President.
*
So, I was expecting to find in the hidden text words like...
Fran=E7oys Mitterrand, Iean-Paul II, pr=E9sident, =E9lu (or to be more
in keeping with 16th century spelling, esleu), pape, bless=E9, and
a number of other words related to these two events linked by
time.
*
The very last thing I was thinking about at the time was to feed
each line of published text to an appropriate computer program
for a list of all possible anagrammatic solutions to that line.
*
The very first thing I did was to find out if the name Fran=E7ois
Mitterrand was present in one of the lines of that poem. It
wasn't. Or, to be precise, it was... *IF* I allowed a tolerance
of one letter for each hidden word in that line.
*
That's when I remembered a statement by the now defunct Belgian
author Paul de Saint-Hilaire who, for the first time to my
knowledge, was speaking of cryptic or poetic anagrams, i.e.,
anagrams in which a tolerance of one letter per hidden word was
allowed.
*
Did line 4 of quatrain II-97 contain all the letters necessary to
write Fran=E7ois Mitterrand's name completely, with that one-letter
tolerance? Yes, it did.
*
So, I was able to construct a short French sentence using a line-
based cryptic anagram of line 4 of quatrain II-97. It is only
some time later that I realized that each quatrain contained at
least four cryptic anagrams, all making a complete, but longer,
French sentence, and that my originally constructed short
sentence was a mistake, as it eventually became the end of a much
longer sentence speaking of the two events having occurred on May
10 and May 13, 1981.
*
To achieve this, I was using -- without giving it that name --
the 'probable word' method pioneered by Porta. Here is the
original quatrain and its hidden text:
*
--------------- C E N T V R I E___S E C O N D E. -------------
----------------------- (=E9dition de 1555) --------------------
*
---- 97 - Romain Pontife garde de t'approcher ----------------
--------- De la cit=E9 qui deux fleuues arrouse, ---------------
--------- Ton sang viendras au pres de la cracher, -----------
--------- Toy & les tiens quandfleurira la rose. -------------
*
The original text hinted at the fact that, less than a year
before the attempt on his life, pope John-Paul II had visited a
city bathed by two rivers, i.e., Paris, located where the Seine
and the Marne are merging; and that the attempt on his life had
occurred when Paris walls were plastered with election posters
bearing the rose-in-the-fist emblem of the Socialist party.
*
In October 1993, I began to unravel Nostradamus' secret, and
discovered what was to eventually become his hidden text about
these events:
*
--------- L'An Octante, le grand pape de Rome, Iean ----------
--------- Paul Deux, est en France IU iours et ---------------
--------- vng An apr=E8s, au Vatican, il est escorch=E9, ---------
--------- lors que Fran=E7oys Mitterrand est esleu. ------------
*
There it was, with all of its details, i.e., the 1980 papal visit
to France (from May 30 to June 2, four days), and the wound
suffered less than a year later, when Fran=E7ois Mitterrand is
elected. At the time, Mitterrand was not yet President, as he had
just been... elected.
*
The spelling, style, vocabulary, of this text were powerful
elements in my conviction that I was not the author of this text.
Today, "Octante" is 'quatre-vingt'; "Iean" is "Jean"; "iours" is
'jours'; "vng" is 'un'; "escorch=E9" is '=E9corch=E9'; "Fran=E7oys" is
'Fran=E7ois'; and "esleu" is '=E9lu'.
*
This is how Nostradamus' secret manner of writing began to be
discovered. More than seven thousand cryptic anagrams later, I
now know his deeply buried secret. In addition to a hidden text
speaking of the events vaguely referred to in the published text,
Nostradamus always speaks of the circumstances of the unintended
destruction of Paris, on Sunday, August 13, 2017, at 3:53 a.m.
*
Unfortunately for the 3,000,000 who shall die as a result of this
unforgiveable mistake committed by the US military, the idea that
Nostradamus truly was a seer shall only be adopted by the entire
world... AFTERWARDS.
*
And, in memory of this second holocaust, France (and perhaps the
entire world after her) shall adopt a new calendar in which Year
2017 shall be known as Year One of the Destruction of Paris.
There shall be no year 2018!
*
Have a nice day, folks!
*
------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Claude Latr=E9mouille % -- "Claude! There ain't no stinkin' -- %
Le 2 mars 2007 ---- % cryptic anagrams in them dang verses,- %
APNCL#1493 -------- % ya hear?!" (A chorus of a.p.n. voices) %
------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
*
=3D=3D=3D