Catherine de’ Medici’s concealed spiral-locked letter to Raimond de Beccarie (c.1570) (UH0224)

Modelled after Catherine de’ Medici’s signed holograph letter to Raimond de Beccarie, Monsieur de Fourquevaux (c.1570), MIT Libraries’ Department of Distinctive Collections, DC111.A2 C38 1570.
Model found in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries (MIT), Unlocking History Research Group archive, MC 0760.
This letter, modeled after a spiral-locked letter by Queen Consort of France, Catherine de’ Medici, features a sword-shaped lock sliced out of the left margin. After a series of roll folds - all carried out with the lock left protruding - the resulting long strip is folded in half short edge to short edge to form the letterpacket.
One slit is made using a bradawl, allowing the pinched lock tip to pass through all layers of the substrate. Two more slits are made, through both the packet and lock, and the lock tip passes through all layers of the letter substrate, and itself, twice, in a spiral motion. Once the lock has been threaded in this way, the packet is very difficult to break into undetected. The recipient literally has to tear the lock in four locations before they can open the letter to read it.
Sealing wax is applied to the lock tip, and papered over with a covered seal. The same action is repeated on the back of the letterpacket, so that all the exposed parts of the lock are now covered and stuck down. Some sealing wax may also creep through the slits before hardening, making those parts of the substrate more likely to tear as the locking mechanism is taken apart. A packet such as this is all but impossible to break into undetected, and this letter is a category LC47H.
When the letter is opened, the “beak” was torn or cut through, leaving two small dog-ears. Although the lock appears to be missing, all of its sections survive, lodged in the slits, or underneath the covered seals. Evidence of the three slits can be observed as two columns running along both sides of the text.
Learn more about the spiral locking technique in our article in our freely accessible article published by the electronic British Library Journal: “The Spiral-Locked Letters of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots,” Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, Jennifer Pellecchia, Alison Wiggins, Andrea Clarke, and Alan Bryson; illustrations by Nicole Araya, Annie Dunn, Matthew Li, and Jana Dambrogio www.bl.uk/eblj...
For downloadable resources related to letterlocking, including the transcription and alt text for this video, visit: dataverse.harv....
Produced by MIT Video Production. Directed and demonstrated by Jana Dambrogio. Funded by the Seaver Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries in support of our project, “Unlocking History.” Special thanks to MIT Video Production staff, David van der Linden, Laura Bergemann and Ayako Letizia.
Citation information: Authors: Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, and the Unlocking History Research Group. Title: "Catherine de’ Medici’s concealed spiral-locked letter to Raimond de Beccarie (c.1570)," Letterlocking Instructional Videos. Unlocking History number 0224/Letterlocking Unique Video number: 224. Date filmed: 30 July 2021. Duration: 7:51. Date posted: 10 December 2021. Video URL: [See URL below]. Date accessed: [Date].
Copyright 2017-present. Jana Dambrogio, the Unlocking History Research Group, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). All rights reserved. The following copyrighted material is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License creativecommon.... Contact the MIT Technology Licensing Office for any other licensing inquiries.
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