Codes and Ciphers from the Renaissance to Today

Codes and Ciphers from the Renaissance to Today

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions..." —HAMLET (4.5.83) It's a striking comment that occurs late in this podcast—and by the time you hear it, you may well agree: "Without Bacon and Shakespeare, we might not have won the war in the Pacific," says Bill Sherman, head of research at the Victoria and Albert Museum and professor of Renaissance studies at the University of York. Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with Sherman about the flowering of codes, ciphers, and secret message systems during the Renaissance—including a brilliant cipher devised by Francis Bacon—and their surprising influence on modern cryptography. As Sherman explains, William Friedman, the top US cryptographer whose team broke the Japanese diplomatic code before World War II, had once been a junior staffer on a team that sought to find Bacon's real-life cipher embedded in the plays of Shakespeare (a once-popular notion that he and his wife and fellow cryptographer Elizebeth later debunked). That early exposure to Renaissance cryptography shaped Friedman's career, as he soon became the founder of modern American cryptography. Listen to learn more about why you might say that Bacon and Shakespeare—through their influence on Friedman—did indeed help to win the war. --------------- From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is associate producer. Edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. Recorded by Toby Schreiner.

Avsnitt(296)

Adjoa Andoh on Shakespeare

Adjoa Andoh on Shakespeare

Known to many as Lady Danbury in Netflix’s Bridgerton, Adjoa Andoh, MBE, is also a celebrated Shakespearean actor and director. Across her career, Andoh has returned to Shakespeare not as a fixed can...

23 Mars 37min

Thinking Through Shakespeare, with David Womersley

Thinking Through Shakespeare, with David Womersley

Many readers turn to Shakespeare for the beauty of his language or the power of his stories. But in Thinking Through Shakespeare, Oxford scholar David Womersley suggests that the plays offer something...

10 Mars 34min

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

When you visit a new city, one of your first stops might be a museum. It turns out that public art galleries are largely an 18th-century invention. In London in 1789, publisher John Boydell helped sha...

24 Feb 36min

Whitney White and Shakespeare

Whitney White and Shakespeare

Whitney White is a theatrical powerhouse. A director, writer, actor, and musician, White’s work has been seen on Broadway, Off Broadway, and at major institutions including The Public Theater, the Bro...

10 Feb 34min

Shakespeare and Mathematics

Shakespeare and Mathematics

Many Shakespeare fans don’t think of themselves as “math people.” They’re theater kids, poetry lovers, bookworms, right? But in Shakespeare’s world, math and literature were deeply intertwined. In Muc...

27 Jan 34min

Spain's Golden Age of Theater

Spain's Golden Age of Theater

While Shakespeare was reshaping English drama, a parallel theatrical revolution was unfolding in Spain. During the Spanish Golden Age, playwright Lope de Vega pioneered the comedia nueva, a bold new d...

13 Jan 31min

The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary

The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary

Why does Samuel Pepys’s diary still matter 200 years after it was first published? In her new book, The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary, historian Kate Loveman examines how Pepys’s extraordina...

29 Dec 202536min

Celebrating Elizabethan Cooking, with Sam Bilton

Celebrating Elizabethan Cooking, with Sam Bilton

What did people really eat in Shakespeare’s England? In her new book, Much Ado About Cooking, food historian Sam Bilton uncovers the vibrant and surprising world of early modern cuisine—where sugar wa...

16 Dec 202534min

Populärt inom Premium

mellan-himmel-och-jord-med-jlc
tutto-balutto
den-som-skrattar-forlorar-podcast-2
podme-dokumentar
rattegangspodden
infor-ratta
filip-fredrik-svarar
fangelsepodden
svenska-mordhistorier
jocke-jonna-sanningen-maste-fram
mordpodden
hogt-i-tak-2
en-mork-historia
bakom-galler
daddy-issues
mardromsgasten
seriemordarpodden
rattsfallen
sillypodden
aterforeningen-en-podcast-med-thorsten-och-richard-flinck-av-sigge-eklund