Existing comment:
Steganography:
Vigenere's steganographic engraving used the stars themselves to pay eloquent (if cryptic) testimony to the presence of God in the heavens. By laying a trellis -- or alphabetical grid -- over an image, and following a prescribed pattern to link elements of the image to letters in a particular order, one could encrypt a message within an image.
This image (see the original in the case below this panel) spells out a message from the beginning of Psalm 19 in Vigenere's native French...
The message in the image is arranged in vertical groupings of 5 letters (or 5-tuplex). By laying the grid over the image, you can quickly see that a star within a grid square represents a letter [stars in column 1 correspond with the letters L, S, C, E, and I stars in column 2 correspond to N, S/X, U/V, E, and E; and so on].
A second layer to the encryption helps place what appears to be a random set of letters into a sequence that reveals the true message. By using a pattern within each grid square, the correct sequence of the letters can be determined.
Don't be fooled by the fact that L is the first letter in the first square -- it is only because L is the first position that it ends up being the first letter of the decoded message. |