Historic Letterlocking: the Art and Security of Letter Writing
Name
Copy of 2014_Letterlocking_FrenchRemovableLocks_article.pdf
Size
6.2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
575687e06b298d93b28bf4cacbc3c356
Author(s)
Dambrogio, Jana L.
Date Issued
November 2014
Journal
Book Arts arts du livre Canada
Publisher
Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild
Citation
Dambrogio, Jana. "Historic Letterlocking: the Art and Security of Letter Writing." Book Arts arts du livre Canada, 5.2 (2014): 21-23.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
What is letterlocking? Letterlocking refers to the process by which a substrate such as paper, parchment, or papyrus has been folded and secured shut to function as its own envelope. It is part of a 10,000 year-old information security tradition, variations of which have been used in cultures throughout the world on formats ranging from Mesopotamian clay bullae to Bitcoin. Locked paper documents, the focus of this article, have been used since the late Middle Ages by regents, their secretaries, spymasters, soldiers, and the general public. Often times the same person used
more than one letterlocking format; some variations were more secure than others. In order to be considered to have the highest level of built-in security,
a locked paper document must meet the following criteria: it must have a paper lock cut from the letter itself, as well as a secondary locking system of
an adhesive substance such as wax, and one must be required to tear or cut the paper lock to gain access to the information inside.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://www.cbbag.ca/publications
