Book Discussion Steganographia

[Xenophon]

Has anyone looked at or into this? It was reccomended to me as absolutely essential to a variety of LHP magick I might have an interest in. Unfortunately, I have a log-jam of magick work and make-a-living work ahead of me, so has anyone read or worked with it? I know its author was a cryptographer polymath who influenced Agrippa. I'm just after any hands on info y'all might proffer.

 

[stalkinghyena]

You might want to check this out:

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I tried my own hand at translation for myself but it was too much work, and my Latin is more on the piggish side. I was hoping someone would get around to publishing it in English for the lazy.

I did come across an article about a Navy cryptographer who supposedly decoded Book 3 of the work, but it did not say what Trithemius wrote - it was just a claim.

Best story I have heard though is that John Dee met a mysterious Hungarian while in Amsterdam (?) who offered to let him copy the book by hand, but he had only 10 days (?) to get it done. Apparently Steganographia was extremely rare in those days, and Dee coveted it highly. Dee stayed up through the period working furiously to get it all down, grinding himself to exhaustion. Not sure if his copy still survives.

 

[Xenophon]

I have a PDF of an English translation done by Fiona Tait and Christopher Upton. But it is only Books I and III. The photostats say it was an edition of 500 copies printed in Edinburg, but with no date. Miskatonic Books says 1982. If Book One proves of interest, I might try machine translating Book II (with fear and trembling, yes.) If you want a the file I have in English, PM me.