Antoine Rossignol

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Antoine Rossignol (from the series of portraits by Charles Perrault : Les Hommes illustres qui ont paru en France pendant ce Siècle , Paris, 1696; German: "The famous men who appeared in France in this century")

Antoine Rossignol (*  1600 in Albi , † December 1682 in Juvisy ) was a French cryptologist .

Life

Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu before La Rochelle

Antoine was born in the southern French city of Albi in 1600, studied mathematics and began to take a special interest in cryptology . In 1626, at the age of 26, he had one of his first encounters with applied cryptanalysis. Prince Henri II. From the house of Bourbon besieged at that time located in southern France Huguenot town Réalmont . The besiegers were able to intercept an encrypted message that was supposed to be smuggled out of the city. In a short time Antoine managed to break the Huguenot cipher and decipher the message . This indicated that the city could no longer be held because supplies were exhausted and the Allies urgently sought help. The next day, the besiegers presented the city commandant of Réalmont with the clear text of the deciphered message and thus achieved his immediate task and the surrender of the city.

This success brought Antoine Rossignol the recognition and attention of the highest circles, in particular Cardinal Richelieu , First Minister of the then French King Louis XIII. who recognized the importance of reliable encryption.

Rossignol was able to repeat his cryptanalytic successes against the Huguenots two years later at the siege of La Rochelle in 1628 . However, he not only succeeded in breaking opposing encryptions, he also improved the cryptographic security of his own methods, such as the nomenclators used , by insisting on using two -part nomenclators instead of the one-part nomenclators that were still common at the time.

Later, together with his son, Bonaventure Rossignol , Antoine developed the " Great Cipher ", a special nomenclature that was long considered "unbreakable", in the King's Cabinet noir (German: Black Chamber) . Antoine Rossignol died in December 1682 at the age of 82 where he had worked, in his manor in Juvisy-sur-Orge , just under 20 kilometers south of Paris.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catalog of the German National Library Accessed: June 2, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Rossignol, Antoine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French cryptanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH 1600
PLACE OF BIRTH Albi
DATE OF DEATH December 1682
Place of death Juvisy