As cryptographers attempted to improve the security of ciphers, while maintaining their practicality, more complex ciphers were being created.  The monoalphabetic substitution cipher was becoming less secure, leading to the advent of the polyalphabetic cipher and the homophonic cipher.  Yet, these ciphers required much more time to encipher, and were too complex for everyday use.  Cryptographers were on a mission to develop a cipher that was less complex than a polyalphabetic cipher and just as secure.  By the 17th century Antoine and Bonaventure Rossignol met that goal by creating the Great Cipher of Louis XIV.  The Great Cipher was simply an enhanced version of a monoalphabetic cipher, yet it remained unbroken for over two hundred years.  How was the Great Cipher so secure?

The Rossignol’s were both excellent cryptographers and cryptanalysts.  As cryptanalysts, they had much more insight when creating the Great Cipher.  The Rossignol’s knew that this new cipher had to be very different from ciphers in the past.  This would ensure the security of Louis XIV’s messages and French secrets.  By acknowledging this idea, and using their past experiences as cryptanalysts, the Rossignol’s created a cipher that used numbers to encode syllables.  In the past, no cryptographer attempted to encipher a plaintext according to anything but letters.  By using syllables, it would take years for any cryptanalysts to decipher their codes.  Cryptanalysts rely on past information in order to solve a cipher.  Because the Great Cipher utilized a new method, cryptanalysts found it very difficult to solve.  Another factor that led to such a secure cipher was that the probability of solving the Great Cipher was so low.  The Great Cipher utilized 578 numbers, whereas typical monoalphabetic substitution ciphers featured 26 letters.  The Rossignol’s didn’t rely on just the use of syllables as their only method of security.  They also included traps in their ciphers to confuse cryptanalysts.  Sometimes numbers represented a single letter instead of a syllable, while other times a number represented nothing at all.  Ultimately, the Great Cipher represented a significant change in cryptography.  It utilized creativity and several lines of defense to keep the French secrets safe.