The book of codes : understanding the world of hidden messages : an illustrated guide to signs, symbols, ciphers, and secret languages
Publication Information
Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, c2009.
Physical Description
279 p. : ill. (chiefly col.), maps (some col.) ; 26 cm.
Summary
This illustrated encyclopedia surveys the history and development of code-making and code-breaking in all areas of culture and society from hieroglyphs and runes to DNA, the Zodiac Killer, graffiti, and beyond.
Notes
"A Weldon Owen production"--T.p. verso.
Contents
- The first codes. Reading the landscape ; Tracking animals ; Bushcraft signs ; Early petroglyphs ; First writing systems ; Reading cuneiform ; Alphabets and scripts ; The evolution of numerical systems ; Linear A and Linear B ; The Phaistos Disc ; The mystery of hieroglyphs ; Hieroglyphs revealed ; The riddle of the Maya ; Indigenous traditions --Sects, symbols, and secret societies. Early Christians ; The pentangle ; Divination ; Heresies, sects and cults ; Rosslyn Chapel ; Alchemy ; Kabbalism ; Necromancy ; Rosicrucians ; Freemasons
- Codes for secrecy. The art of concealment ; For your eyes only ; Frequency analysis ; Disguising ciphers ; Medieval cipher systems ; The Babington plot ; The da Vinci code ; Ciphertexts and keys ; Grilles ; Spies and black chambers ; Mechanical devices ; Hidden in plain sight
- Communicating at a distance. Long-distance alarms ; Flag signals ; Semaphore and the telegraph ; Morse code ; Person to person
- Codes of war. Classical codes of war ; The 'indecipherable' code ; The Great Cipher ; 19th-century innovations ; Military map codes ; Field signals ; The Zimmermann Telegram ; Enigma : the 'unbreakable' system ; WWII codes and code breakers ; Cracking enigma ; Navajo windtalkers ; Cold war codes --Codes of the underworld. Street slangs ; From Samurai to Yakuza ; Cockney rhyming slang ; The Mob ; Ramblers' sign language ; Cops and codes ; The Zodiac mystery ; The Zodiac legacy ; Graffiti ; Youth codes ; Digital subversion --
- Encoding the world. Describing time ; Describing form ; Force and motion ; Mathematics : the indescribable ; The periodic table ; Defining the world ; Encoding the landscape ; Navigation ; Taxonomy ; The genetic code ; Genetic ancestry ; Using the genetic code
- Codes of civilization. Codes of construction ; Taoist mysticism ; South Asian sacred imagery ; The language of Buddhism ; The patterns of Islam ; Mysteries of the North ; Medieval visual sermons ; Stained glass windows ; Renaissance iconography ; The Age of Reason ; Victoriana ; Textiles, carpets, and embroidery --Codes of commerce. Commercial codes ; Brands and trademarks ; Makers' marks ; Codes of work ; Currency and counterfeits ; The book in your hands
- Codes of human behavior. Body language ; Survival signals ; Sporting codes ; Etiquette ; Dressing your message ; Heraldry ; Formal dress codes ; Decoding the unconscious ; The language of dreams
- Visual codes. Signs and signage ; Highway codes ; Challenged communication ; Describing music ; Musical scores ; Animal talk ; Extraterrestrials
- Imaginary codes. Modern magic and mayhem ; The Bible code ; The Beale Papers ; Mystery and imagination ; Fantasy codes ; Doomsday codes
- The digital age. The first computers ; Supercomputers ; Talking to computers ; Alice, Bob, and Eve ; Future medicine ; Where are codes taking us?