Encrypted images in “The Prophecies” of Nostradamus
Graphic cipher was first discovered by the author in "The Prophecies" of Nostradamus, and approximate methods for recovering encrypted images have been proposed. The encryption method of Nostradamus is essentially Caesar's cipher, which was adapted to transmit images instead of text. This method could have scientific value in the 16th century, without reference to the meaning of the hidden images, which is currently unclear. Given the rather high complexity of such a cipher (especially for the 16th century), it is possible that these images carry the main substantive content of the texts under consideration. Problems such as improving methods for pattern processing and identifying new images, mathematical criteria for distinguishing encrypted images from spillover pareidolia effects, and interpreting the images in a historical context remain relevant. The search for more adequate methods for recovering encrypted images is a technically creative challenge. The proposed original approach can serve as the beginning of a conceptual shift in the study of the prophecies of Nostradamus – from interpretations of foggy texts to the image recovery and recognition. The obtained results are essential for the history of steganography and shed a fundamentally new light on the work of Nostradamus.