Unlocking History number (UH#)

UH0072



Original

Intelligencer Simeon Foxe’s Dagger-Trap Pleated Letter 



Model and research notes

MIT Libraries, Unlocking History Research Group archive, MC0760, Box 27.



Letterlocking Unique Video number(s) (LUV #s) & Instructional video(s) URL

LUV072 http://youtu.be/16GAIaYN_Gk 



Instructional video info transcription

Forthcoming



Letterlocking Category number (LC #)

LC47H        



Letterlocking Format number (LF #)

4RXW



Security score

High



Assessment of Confidence in assigning LC#

Attested



Substrate

Paper



Dimensions

Opened (in mm):        H:262 mm x 360mm        

Letterpacket (in mm): H: 48 mm x W: 90mm



Manifestation

Opened



Distinctive letterlocking style(s)

Dagger-trap



Locking mechanism

Lock



Security enhancements

Authenticated exposed seal

Fake security

Hatching

Booby trap Lock-SA       



Letterlocking category formula (shorthand)

LC47 

Fold + Slit/Hole + Adhere + Lock-O + Lock-SA  

(F + S/H + A + LO + LSA)



Letterlocking manipulation sequence (shorthand)

Forthcoming



Locking instructions

Forthcoming



Images 

Forthcoming



Foldable(s)

Forthcoming



Step-by-steps 

Forthcoming



Substrate map

Forthcoming



Virtual unfolding results

NA



Manipulations

Writing: Margin folds

Postal: NA

Opening: Tears

Filing (Storage, Display): NA

Repair: NA



Damage

Tears



Features

Dirt on panels/ in crease

Radiating wrinkles

Seal impression adjacency

Wrinkles



Article(s)

2023. Daniel Starza Smith & Jana Dambrogio. Letterlocking: securing correspondence before envelopes in Routledge Encyclopedia of the Renaissance World. Lauren Shohet, subject editor. 



2021. Unlocking history through automated virtual unfolding of sealed documents imaged by X-ray microtomography 



Book 

Jana Dambrogio and Daniel Starza Smith with the Unlocking History Research Group. Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2025.



Citation for the letter(s)

UH0072

Original 

Simeon Foxe to Sir Robert Cecil, addressed to Thomas Wilson (August 29, 1601). National Archives (TNA), SP 101/81 fols. 344/345.



Model

MIT Libraries, Unlocking History Research Group archive, MC0760, Box 29.



Video

Jana Dambrogio and the Unlocking History Research Group, “Intelligencer Simeon Foxe’s dagger-trap pleated letter sent from Venice (1601).” Letterlocking Instructional Videos. Unlocking History number 0072/Letterlocking Unique Video number: 0072.  Filmed: September 2016. Duration: 12:11. Posted: October 2016. URL: https://youtu.be/16GAIaYN_Gk. Accessed March 4, 2025.






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