A Material History Of Medieval And Early Modern Ciphers: Cryptography And The History Of Literacy (material Readings In Early Modern Culture)
by Susan Kim /
2017 / English / PDF
5.5 MB Download
The first cultural history of early modern cryptography, this
collection brings together scholars in history, literature,
music, the arts, mathematics, and computer science who study
ciphering and deciphering from new materialist, media studies,
cognitive studies, disability studies, and other theoretical
perspectives. Essays analyze the material forms of ciphering as
windows into the cultures of orality, manuscript, print, and
publishing, revealing that early modern ciphering, and the
complex history that preceded it in the medieval period, not only
influenced political and military history but also played a
central role in the emergence of the capitalist media state in
the West, in religious reformation, and in the scientific
revolution. Ciphered communication, whether in etched stone and
bone, in musical
The first cultural history of early modern cryptography, this
collection brings together scholars in history, literature,
music, the arts, mathematics, and computer science who study
ciphering and deciphering from new materialist, media studies,
cognitive studies, disability studies, and other theoretical
perspectives. Essays analyze the material forms of ciphering as
windows into the cultures of orality, manuscript, print, and
publishing, revealing that early modern ciphering, and the
complex history that preceded it in the medieval period, not only
influenced political and military history but also played a
central role in the emergence of the capitalist media state in
the West, in religious reformation, and in the scientific
revolution. Ciphered communication, whether in etched stone and
bone, in musicalnotae
notae, runic symbols, polyalphabetic
substitution, algebraic equations, graphic typographies, or
literary metaphors, took place in contested social spaces and
offered a means of expression during times of political,
economic, and personal upheaval. Ciphering shaped the early
history of linguistics as a discipline, and it bridged
theological and scientific rhetoric before and during the
Reformation. Ciphering was an occult art, a mathematic language,
and an aesthetic that influenced music, sculpture, painting,
drama, poetry, and the early novel. This collection addresses
gaps in cryptographic history, but more significantly, through
cultural analyses of the rhetorical situations of ciphering and
actual solved and unsolved medieval and early modern ciphers, it
traces the influences of cryptographic writing and reading on
literacy broadly defined as well as the cultures that generate,
resist, and require that literacy. This volume offers a
significant contribution to the history of the book, highlighting
the broader cultural significance of textual materialities.
, runic symbols, polyalphabetic
substitution, algebraic equations, graphic typographies, or
literary metaphors, took place in contested social spaces and
offered a means of expression during times of political,
economic, and personal upheaval. Ciphering shaped the early
history of linguistics as a discipline, and it bridged
theological and scientific rhetoric before and during the
Reformation. Ciphering was an occult art, a mathematic language,
and an aesthetic that influenced music, sculpture, painting,
drama, poetry, and the early novel. This collection addresses
gaps in cryptographic history, but more significantly, through
cultural analyses of the rhetorical situations of ciphering and
actual solved and unsolved medieval and early modern ciphers, it
traces the influences of cryptographic writing and reading on
literacy broadly defined as well as the cultures that generate,
resist, and require that literacy. This volume offers a
significant contribution to the history of the book, highlighting
the broader cultural significance of textual materialities.