«Porque si se offresciere algún aviso o alguna cosa que vuestra merced me quiera screvir de secreto le envío esta cifra». Claves criptográficas conservadas en el archivo particular de Juan Rena durante el primera tercio del siglo XVI

Abstract

Diverse cryptographic material has come to light during the recent rearrangement, carried out by the General Archive of Navarre, of several documents coming from the personal archive of Venetian clergyman Juan Rena (ca.1480-1359). Rena was the right-hand man of Ferdinand II of Aragon, called the Catholic, and Charles V, during the administrative restructuring of the Kingdom of Navarre after its conquest in 1512. The material found relates to his activity during the period from 1520 to 1529. The present study focuses on three ciphers unknown so far, placing them in their chronological context and analysing their main features in relation to other known keys from the Hispanic 16 th century sphere. These findings are of particular interest due to the lack of information about the existence of this kind of documents, linked to Navarrese elites in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, because they allow us to check that they must not have been uncommon among privileged sectors.