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In cryptography
Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. In modern times cryptography is considered a branch of both mathematics and computer science and is affiliated closely with information theory, computer security and engineering....
, the tabula recta is a square table of alphabets, each row of which is made by shifting the previous one to the left. The term was invented by Johannes Trithemius
Johannes Trithemius

Johannes Trithemius was born Johann Heidenberg. He was an abbot and occultist who had an influence on later occultism. The name by which he is more commonly known is derived from his native town of Trittenheim on the Mosel in Germany....
 in 1518.

Trithemius used the tabula recta to define a polyalphabetic cipher
Polyalphabetic cipher

A polyalphabetic cipher is any cipher based on substitution cipher, using multiple substitution alphabets. The Vigen?re cipher is probably the best-known example of a polyalphabetic cipher, though it is a simplified special case....
 which was equivalent to Leon Battista Alberti's cipher disk except that the alphabets are not mixed. The tabula recta is often referred to in discussing pre-computer ciphers, including the Vigenère cipher
Vigenère cipher

The Vigen?re cipher is a method of encryption alphabetic text by using a series of different Caesar ciphers based on the letters of a keyword. It is a simple form of Polyalphabetic cipher....
 and Blaise de Vigenère
Vigenère

Vigen?re may refer to:*Blaise de Vigen?re, a 16th-century French cryptographer*The Vigen?re cipher, a cipher whose invention was later misattributed to Vigen?re...
's less well-known (but much stronger) autokey cipher
Autokey cipher

An autokey cipher is a cipher which incorporates the message into the key . There are two forms of autokey cipher: key autokey and text autokey ciphers....
.






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In cryptography
Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. In modern times cryptography is considered a branch of both mathematics and computer science and is affiliated closely with information theory, computer security and engineering....
, the tabula recta is a square table of alphabets, each row of which is made by shifting the previous one to the left. The term was invented by Johannes Trithemius
Johannes Trithemius

Johannes Trithemius was born Johann Heidenberg. He was an abbot and occultist who had an influence on later occultism. The name by which he is more commonly known is derived from his native town of Trittenheim on the Mosel in Germany....
 in 1518.

Trithemius used the tabula recta to define a polyalphabetic cipher
Polyalphabetic cipher

A polyalphabetic cipher is any cipher based on substitution cipher, using multiple substitution alphabets. The Vigen?re cipher is probably the best-known example of a polyalphabetic cipher, though it is a simplified special case....
 which was equivalent to Leon Battista Alberti's cipher disk except that the alphabets are not mixed. The tabula recta is often referred to in discussing pre-computer ciphers, including the Vigenère cipher
Vigenère cipher

The Vigen?re cipher is a method of encryption alphabetic text by using a series of different Caesar ciphers based on the letters of a keyword. It is a simple form of Polyalphabetic cipher....
 and Blaise de Vigenère
Vigenère

Vigen?re may refer to:*Blaise de Vigen?re, a 16th-century French cryptographer*The Vigen?re cipher, a cipher whose invention was later misattributed to Vigen?re...
's less well-known (but much stronger) autokey cipher
Autokey cipher

An autokey cipher is a cipher which incorporates the message into the key . There are two forms of autokey cipher: key autokey and text autokey ciphers....
. All polyalphabetic ciphers based on Caesar cipher
Caesar cipher

In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as a Caesar's cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar's code or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques....
s can be described in terms of the tabula recta.

In order to encrypt a plaintext, one locates the row with the first letter to be encrypted, and the column with the first letter of the key. The letter where the line and column cross is the ciphertext letter.