An ornamental woodcut headpiece featuring symmetrical scrollwork, acanthus leaves, and stylized foliate motifs.

HERE BEGINS THE BOOK

THE FIRST BOOK OF THE STEGANOGRAPHY original: "Steganographia" — A term coined by Trithemius from the Greek steganos (hidden) and graphein (to write); it refers to the art of hidden writing.

OF JOHN TRITHEMIUS, AB-

bot of Sponheim, of the Order of Saint Benedict,

in the Diocese of Mainz,

TO THE

MOST SERENE PRINCE, LORD

PHILIP, COUNT PALATINE

of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, and Prince-

Elector of the Holy Empire, etc.

A large historiated woodcut initial 'A' depicting a figure amidst vine-work and foliage.

It is the opinion of the most learned men that the most ancient Sages, whom in the Greek tongue we call Philosophers, if they discovered any secrets original: "arcana" — hidden or secret things. of either nature or art, hid them by various means and figures so that they would not fall into the knowledge of wicked men. The more learned of the Jews also confirm that Moses, that most famous Leader of the Israelite people, in his description of the creation of Heaven and Earth, covered the ineffable secrets of mysteries with simple words. Even the Sainted and, among our own people, the most learned Jerome, affirms that nearly as many mysteries lie hidden in the Apocalypse of John The biblical Book of Revelation. as there are words. I pass over those Sages of the Greeks who were of no small reputation among their own; and I leave aside our own most learned Philosophers and Poets, who, devoting their labor to the writing of fables, delivered one thing to the unskilled and another to the learned by a sagacious invention original: "sagaci adinuentione" — refers to the clever literary or symbolic devices used to hide deeper meanings. in the sequence of a single narrative. These most studious lovers of Wisdom, even if I cannot perfectly imitate them due to the slowness of my intellect, I nevertheless do not fail to admire and read with what diligence I can. Because when those men, by their own study, [exceeded] other men in great [matters]... The sentence is interrupted here by the end of the page.