So, she methodically described what she observed. While it could be mistaken for damage to the untrained eye, she realised it was evidence of letterlocking. On her first day, she was offered the chance to work on the Fondo Veneto Sezione II, a cache of maps, letters, legal and accounting documents from the late 1500s, many of which had not been repaired.Īs she completed her conservation work, Dambrogio didn't always follow the writing, since it was often in old Italian dialects, but she did notice cuts, creases and folds in the paper. In the early 2000s, she had been the first woman from outside the archive's conservation laboratory who was allowed to work there. The modern study of letterlocking began when the conservator Jana Dambrogio was leafing through a cache of documents in the Vatican Secret Archives in Italy. The hidden codes you're not meant to know.So how does letterlocking work, and is it possible to try it yourself? In recent years, a whole taxonomy of apparently forgotten letterlocking tricks have been uncovered. Anyone who is capable of sending a letter is using letterlocking."īut in the present day, we're only beginning to understand the technique's importance in history. So it's not something confined to experts, royalty or spy masters. "So, if it's a business letter, if it's a love letter, if it's a spy letter, if it's a diplomatic letter, they're all using letterlocking. This is how you send a letter before the envelope is invented," explains Daniel Starza Smith, a lecturer in Early Modern English literature at King’s College London. "This isn't something special that people do on special occasions. By folding and cutting letters in various clever patterns, people attempted to hide their correspondence from unwanted readers, and the "locks" came in myriad types. Mary Queen of Scots was far from the only person who was skilled in the art of "letterlocking" – the technique became common throughout Europe during the Late Middle Ages (1250-1500) and Early Modern periods (1500-1815). Watch this and other letterlocking techniques on the Unlocking History Research Group's YouTube page.Watch a reconstruction of how Mary did it: No wax or adhesive was required, but crucially, if someone tried to sneak a look, they would have to rip through the strip, so her brother-in-law would know the message had been intercepted. After poking the knife through the rectangle to make a hole, she then fed the strip through, looping it and tightening it a few times, creating a "spiral lock". Instead, Mary cut a thin strip from the paper margin, before folding up her message into a small rectangle. However, envelopes were not used in the 1500s – not least because paper was expensive – and there was no trustworthy postal service at the time. She didn't want her captors snooping – and particularly not her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. "The Catholic faith and the assertion of my God-given right to the English crown are the two issues on which I am condemned." With a sad acceptance of her fate, she asked him to take care of her affairs and pay her servants, wishing him "good health and a long and happy life".Īfter Mary had finished writing, she then began to fold up the letter to secure its contents. "Tonight, after dinner, I have been advised of my sentence: I am to be executed like a criminal at eight in the morning," she wrote. Enhance any letter or invitation with a personalized celebration template.Late at night on 8 February 1587, an imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots composed her last ever letter to her brother-in-law. Don't forget the stamp before heading to the post box! Letters are also great to send for special occasions such as weddings and holidays. After completing your design, you can print it out, write your letter, and add it to an envelope. Whether you're writing a nice note to grandma or want to keep in touch with a pen pal, adding some graphics to your letter will make it so much more memorable. Once you've picked your template, you can customize your paper to make your letter special. You can give your letter a simple look with a modern design, go back in time with a vintage template, or keep it playful with some fun illustrations. To start, choose your favorite template on Microsoft Create. Make your letter more graphically appealing in a flash using templates. And by writing your letter on custom-made paper, you can personalize your letter even more. Although writing out a message takes more effort than just sending a text message, a letter will mean so much more to the recipient. In this digital age, getting a handwritten letter in the mail is a rare but wonderful surprise.
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