Methods of encoding in Samuel De Archevolti's Arugat Ha-Bosem

The grammar book Arugat Ha-Bosem is the major work compiled by the Italian scholar R. Sh'muel ben Elhanan Ya'acov Archevolti, born c. 1530 and died in 1611. The book was completed in the city of Padua in 1602 and was published in Venice. It is a comprehensive, 32-chapter book dealing with the Hebrew language. Chapter Thirty in this book discusses many different ways of encoding a text, its perspective being that these too are types of human "languages of communication," and are thus worthy of being discussed in a book dealing with language. The writer discusses ways of communicating with a deaf mute who neither hears nor speaks, with physical encoding by means of hidden inks, and mainly with the systematic encoding of messages, some systems being simple and others more complex.