Ottavian Medici and the decline of Venetian cryptography

Abstract

The recent discovery, in the State Archives of Venice, of a 1621 final account from a committee of three noblemen charged to evaluate cipher services, sheds new light on the decline of cryptography in Venice in the subsequent centuries. The committee produced not only its evaluation, but also a new, interesting cipher, by the young Ottauian Medici. But, after Medici, stagnation and decline set in, until the final collapse of the Republic of Venice in 1797.