BY ERYCIUS PUTEANUS Hendrik van der Putte (1574–1646), a Dutch humanist scholar.

ON

THE ANAGRAM,

WHICH IS A PART OF THE CABALA In the Renaissance, "Cabala" or Kabbalah was often used by Christian scholars to refer broadly to mystical systems of interpreting letters and numbers to find hidden meanings.,

A DISSERTATION.

CHAPTER I.

An introduction regarding the secrets of writing, which is established partly by the Substitution of letters and partly by their Transposition. That Cryptography properly consists of Substitution, and Anagram-making in Transposition.

THERE IS more than one secret way original: "latebra," literally a hiding place or refuge. of writing: none is more ready at hand than that which is formed by letters, whether they are foreign and Substituted, or one's own and Transposed. Substitution occurs in a whole discourse, or a part of it, when the things we mean must be hidden. Transposition occurs mostly in Proper Names, when learned men either adopt or allow this fictional persona; they are cautious when it is a fine thing to be unknown, and safe where it is necessary to lie hidden. As...