Joseph Scaliger’s spiral-locked letter to Francisco Donzà, Europe (c.1593–1606) (UH0078)

Modelled after Joseph Scaliger’s letter to Francisco Donzà (c.1593–1606), Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS Bywater 63, fol. 52. When Dutch historian Joseph Scaliger (1540–1609) or his letterlocker (e.g. secretary) secured his letterpacket shut with an attached “spiral lock,” he built in so much security that the recipient would have needed to tear the lock at five different points to open the letter. Applying sealing wax over areas of the paper lock not only enabled him to impress his signet but to also perfectly preserve evidence of a high-level snoop deterrent. Before he began writing his letter to Francisco Donzà, Scaliger must have known he was going to use this type of locking mechanism. To create a letterpacket this sophisticated requires some planning. The folding sequence presented in the video proposes the following: Scaliger creased the paper along the left, long, blank edge, about 30mm in, and unfolded it. He then created a second edge fold. He added another crease by taking the same left edge and aligning it with the newly formed crease and unfolded it. Scaliger tri-folded his paper, short edge to short edge, and unfolded it. He then refolded the left long edge up to the margin fold to create the lock. He placed his knife at the horizontal fold about 4mm from the folded edge and sliced internally up towards the top edge of the letter. He curved the path of the knife just short of the top edge towards the left folded edge of the paper. He unfolded the left edge, and a dagger-shaped lock emerged from the blank margin, the base of the lock remained attached at the horizontal fold he made earlier in the letter substrate. The lock was left free and extended past the paper while Scaliger folded the rest of the paper into the letterpacket. The letter was tri-folded top to bottom edge and then while remaining folded, folded top to bottom one more time. The last fold aligned the short free edges with each other to create the letterpacket. Scaliger or his letterlocker then built the spiral locking mechanism. To begin, he made the first of four small slits (3–4mm each) through the packet near the bottom edge. The wider portion of the attached lock wrapped around the letterpacket and laid flush while the tip of the lock was folded, laced through the first slit, until it couldn’t travel any farther. The next slit was made toward the top edge on the opposite outer panel of the letterpacket. As the lock passed through this slit, it also passed through itself for the first time. Each time the free end of the lock traveled through the slit, it was folded in half, and each time the lock emerged, it was flattened before the next slit was made. The lock was stitched through itself and the packet two more times, transforming it into a textured and tightly-laced lock. The tail of the lock was just long enough to pass through the fourth and final slit made in the middle of the column of slits. The tip of the lock presumably is preserved underneath the sealing wax. Opened letters like this one – with a column of slits found in every panel, parallel to and millimeters from the long edges of the substrate – were secured shut via “recursive perforation," by which the paper lock is laced through itself and the letterpacket using three or more slits. It would be difficult to break into the letter and attempt to match the lock’s built-in anti-tamper attributes. Produced by MIT Video Production. Researched, reverse-engineered, directed, and demonstrated by Jana Dambrogio. Funded by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the MIT Libraries. Special thanks to Bodleian Library staff: Andrew Honey, Mike Webb, Michelle Chew, Alexandra Franklin, Chris Fletcher, Ayako Letizia, Annie Dunn, Emily Hishta Cohen, MIT Video Production staff, Mary Uthuppuru, Brien Beidler, Sarah Manguso, and Daniel Starza Smith. Citation information: Authors: Jana Dambrogio and the Unlocking History Research Group. Title: "Joseph Scaliger’s spiral-locked letter to Francisco Donzà, Europe (c.1593–1606)," Letterlocking Instructional Videos. Unlocking History number 0078/Letterlocking Unique Video number: 078. Date filmed: September 2016. Duration: 6:08. Date posted: October 2016. Video URL: [Insert URL]. Date accessed: [Date]. Copyright 2016–present. Jana Dambrogio, the Unlocking History Research Group, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). All rights reserved. The following copyrighted material is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.... Contact the MIT Technology Licensing Office for any other licensing inquiries. NB: Letterlock responsibly. Be mindful of open flames or hot tools. To find out more about letterlocking, visit http://letterlocking.org and follow us on social media @letterlocking. YouTube URL: http://bit.ly/BlankMargin or    • Joseph Scaliger’s spiral-locked letter to ...