Tool to decrypt/encrypt any Ave Maria from Trithemius, a kind of poem / psalm in Latin whose words/verses hide a secret message.
Trithemius Ave Maria - dCode
Tag(s) : Substitution Cipher
dCode is free and its tools are a valuable help in games, maths, geocaching, puzzles and problems to solve every day!
A suggestion ? a feedback ? a bug ? an idea ? Write to dCode!
Trithemius Ave Maria
Trithemius Ave Maria Decoder
Trithemius Ave Maria Encoder
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is a Trithemius Ave Maria? (Definition)
Trithemius' Ave Maria is a steganographic process invented by the benedictine monk Johannes Trithemius around 1518. It replaces each letter of the plaintext by a group of words which looks like a poem.
How to encrypt a litany according to Trithemius?
Encryption uses a correlation table between letters and portions of psalms. Trithemius wrote a book (Polygraphiae - Ioannes Trithemius) which contains a hundred pages with Latin words associated with a letter of the alphabet.
The first page contains the following associations:
| A | deus, clemens | B | creator,clementissimus |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | conditor,pius | D | opifex,piissimus |
| E | dominus,magnus | F | dominator,excelsus |
| G | consolator,maximus | H | arbiter,optimus |
| I | iudex,sapientissimus | K | illuminator,inuisibilis |
| L | illustrator,immortalis | M | rector,aeternus |
| N | rex,sempiternus | O | imperator,gloriosus |
| P | gubernator,fortissimus | Q | factor,sanctissimus |
| R | fabricator,incompraehensibilis | S | conseruator,omnipotens |
| T | redemptor,pacificus | U | auctor,misericors |
| X | princeps,misericordissimus | Y | pastor,conctipotens |
| Z | moderator,magnificus | ß | saluator,excellentissimus |
The Latin alphabet does not have all the letters, there is no V or W replaced by U, there is no J, replaced by I, and so on.
Encryption consists in encoding each letter of the message with a word in the list, the result will resemble a prayer/litany in Latin.
Example: To encrypt DCODE, use a word for D: opifex or piissimus, same with C, O etc. and get the following poem: Opifex pius
Imperator piissimus
Dominus
It is possible to fill in the text with other words to better link each component.
The book of Trithemius is composed of several hundred words. dCode only handles the first page of this fully written Latin book here
How to decrypt an Ave Maria Trithemius cipher?
Decryption requires to find the correspondence of each word in the book Polygraphia from Trithemius.
Example: For the poem
Opifex pius
Imperator piissimus
Dominus
Search opifex which corresponds to D then pius for C etc.
The plain message is DCODE.
How to recognize an Ave Maria from Trithemius?
The cipher is composed of Latin words generally related to God.
Ave Maria, which translates to Hail Mary in Latin, is one of the most popular prayers in the Catholic tradition.
The encrypted message is much longer than the plain text (since it replaces letters with words).
A classic ave maria usually ends with the word amen.
When was Trithemius' Ave Maria invented?
Johannes Trithemius (born in 1462) would have written Steganographia in 1499 but it would have only been published in the early 17th century.
Source code
dCode retains ownership of the "Trithemius Ave Maria" source code. Any algorithm for the "Trithemius Ave Maria" algorithm, applet or snippet or script (converter, solver, encryption / decryption, encoding / decoding, ciphering / deciphering, breaker, translator), or any "Trithemius Ave Maria" functions (calculate, convert, solve, decrypt / encrypt, decipher / cipher, decode / encode, translate) written in any informatic language (Python, Java, PHP, C#, Javascript, Matlab, etc.) or any database download or API access for "Trithemius Ave Maria" or any other element are not public (except explicit open source licence like Creative Commons). Same with the download for offline use on PC, mobile, tablet, iPhone or Android app.
Reminder: dCode is an educational and teaching resource, accessible online for free and for everyone.
Cite dCode
The content of the page "Trithemius Ave Maria" and its results may be freely copied and reused, including for commercial purposes, provided that dCode.fr is cited as the source.
Exporting the results is free and can be done simply by clicking on the export icons ⤓ (.csv or .txt format) or ⧉ (copy and paste).
To cite dCode.fr on another website, use the link:
In a scientific article or book, the recommended bibliographic citation is: Trithemius Ave Maria on dCode.fr [online website], retrieved on 2025-04-15,
