New Book of Cyphers; More Compleat and Regular than Any yet Extant. Wherein the Whole Alphabet (Twice Over) Consisting of 600 Cyphers, Is Variously Changed, Inter-Woven, and Reversed

(8 x 10 inches). First edition. *I-*IV [A4] B-M4 **I-IV. 56 ff. [1-112]. 112 pp. 56 copper engraved plates, 50 each with 12 cyphers; 6 other engraved plates with text in French and English. Coronets Frontispiece, Title, English Advertisement, French Advertisement, 50 Leaves of Cyphers. Frontispiece reads: "A book of cyphers composed by Col. Parsons. Imprimatur Carlisle. E. M. 1703." Priced bound at 12 shillings. 18 leaves with extensive contemporary ink manuscript penmanship editions on versos. Bound to style in quarter 18th-century morocco over 18th-century marble paper boards Extensively annotated first edition, Parsons's enigmatic cypher book draws on heraldy, cryptography, and typography, and led a craze for monogrammatic systems of which many imitators followed. "Such cyphers were extremely popular on both sides of the Atlantic during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. For inspiration in preparing clients' personal designs, engravers typically relied on guides by designers, such as William Parsons's New Book of Cyphers." - DDW Parsons's New Book of Cyphers was at the forefront of a publishing craze for cyphers in the 1700s; it was the fourth such book to be printed and dozens of nearly identical ones followed. Samuel Sympson released books with the exact same title as the present in 1739 and 1750. Phillip Barraud, meanwhile, had the good taste in 1782 to change Parsons's title by one word to "A New Book of Single Cyphers." Cyphers were used to create heraldic devices and monogrammatic signatures, to embroider on clothing, use as trademarks or store signs, or to incorporate into bookplates, as many book collectors have and continue to do. Cyphers differ from monograms in that the individual aspects of a cypher system can be exchanged without affecting the overall system; the letterforms in monograms must be redesigned each time. The cypher system, with its internal algorithmic rules and capacity for change, can easily encrypt secret messages, and has done so from mysterious medieval codices like the Voynich Manuscript to the communiques of British generals during the American Revolution to the blockchain and "crypto" today. Cyphers were so faddish in the 1700s, that people kept albums full of printed cyphers they had collected from their family, friends, and celebrities of the period. Cyphers, in other words, were treated something like autographs, something like business cards, something like keepsakes, and they were devices people and their families identified with strongly. The 600 engraved cyphers across 56 plates in this first edition of Parson's book each show how to interlink two separate letters within Parsons's larger system of encipherment. Parsons gives instructions in both French and English on how to use them to compose longer texts. Parsons comments severely in his preliminary "Advertisement" preface that the earlier works on the subject contained only half the required number of cyphers necessary to complete their alphabets. By extrapolating from Parsons's text and his supplied two-letter cypher building-blocks, one could create cyphers of any length that would maintain a consistent, coherent design and be able to be deciphered if one knew the system. This book of cyphers seems oriented toward a striving merchant class, not an aristocracy born into their family's symbols from the beginning of their lives. Anyone with access to pen and paper could make a cypher of their initials using this book. This interpretation is bolstered by the early-19th century ink manuscript editions found in the book. Numerous pages of repetitive handwriting exercises express upright moral sentiments: "By a commendable deportment we gain reputation." "Compassionate men never prove extortioners." "A flattering companion is a dangerous enemy." "Brave spirits promote the public good." These didactic lines were copied out of Fisher's The American Instructor: or, Young Man's Best Companion . . . How to Qualify Any Pers.