A letter,
written in 1547 by Emperor Charles V of Habsburg to his ambassador in Paris
and forgotten for centuries,
has been deciphered by four researchers.
To interpret the missive, which was
in the collections of the Stanislas library in Nancy
, it took
six months of work
and the contribution of the
Laboratoire lorrain de recherche en informatique (Loria) of Nancy,
associated with that of a
historian from the University of Picardy .
The decryption, five centuries later, of what
appeared to be "intelligible" symbols
now sheds new light on the relations between the
kingdom of France
, at the time led by Francis I, and
the Holy Roman Empire
.
Charles V of Habsburg, one of the greatest sovereigns in world history, ruled over such a vast territory that
"the sun never set" over his kingdom
.