“Was Early Modern Shorthand Cipher? Some Examples from Late Stuart England”

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of whether early modern shorthand, a scribal technology first widely used in seventeenth-century England, qualifies as “cipher”. In addition to the famous shorthand diary of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), it will examine the previously undeciphered shorthand of several other late Stuart figures, with a particular focus on the lawyer and Member of Parliament Sir George Treby (c.1643-1700). Just as the authors of stenographic manuals touted shorthand as “secret writing”, writers like Pepys and Treby clearly employed strategies to make their shorthand (or parts of it) difficult either to decipher or detect. Early modern shorthand can pose significant challenges for scholars, especially in cases where the system used is unknown; as with contemporary ciphertext, cracking these sources often requires painstaking contextual analysis currently beyond the powers of artificial intelligence.