Unlocking History number (UH#)
UH0166
Original
A Brienne Diamond format
Model and research notes
MIT Libraries, Unlocking History Research Group archive, MC0760, Box 21–24 .
Letterlocking Unique Video number(s) (LUV #s) & Instructional video(s) URL
LUV166 https://youtu.be/RX9bxICepJ8
LUV256 https://youtu.be/6nt-JcI6QSM
Instructional video info transcription
Forthcoming
Letterlocking Category number (LC #)
LC02Z
Letterlocking Format number (LF #)
4SD
Security score
Zero
Assessment of Confidence in assigning LC#
Attested
Substrate
Paper
Dimensions
Opened (in mm): H: 263mm x W: 199mm
Letterpacket (in mm): H: 55mm x W: 57mm
Manifestation
Refolded
Distinctive letterlocking style(s)
Brienne diamond
Locking mechanism
Tuck
Security enhancements
NA
Letterlocking category formula (shorthand)
LC2
Fold + Tuck
(F + T)
Letterlocking manipulation sequence (shorthand)
Fold + fold + fold + fold + fold + fold + fold + fold + fold + fold + tuck + + tuck
Locking instructions
Bifolium fold. Keep folded. Fold short-edge to short-edge, from bottom edge to top edge. Keep folded. Flip over so the fixed long edge is at the top. Edge fold, long top edge down about 10mm. Keep folded. Flip over right to left. Fold short-edge to short-edge. Unfold. Double corner fold the top corners toward centerfold. Roll fold bottom long edge twice onto the triangular flaps created by the corner folds. Flip over right to left. Roll fold the long edges around the corners of the triangular shaped letterpacket on both sides two times. Diagonal fold bottom right triangle towards the small triangular fixed pocket. Tuck the triangular flap into the triangle pocket. Diagonal fold the left triangular flap towards the small triangular fixed pocket. Tuck the triangular flap into the triangle pocket.
Images
Forthcoming
Foldable(s)
Forthcoming
Step-by-steps
Forthcoming
Substrate map
Forthcoming
Virtual unfolding results
NA
Manipulations
Writing: NA
Postal: No postal marks. Inserted letter disassociated with its wrapper or letterwrapper.
Opening: Tears
Filing (Storage, Display): NA
Repair: NA
Damage
Tears
Features
Dirt on panels/ in crease
Radiating wrinkles
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.
2019. “Letters”, with Elizabethanne Boran & Marie Isabel Matthews-Schlinzig with Rebekah Ahrendt, Nadine Akkerman, Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, & David van der Linden. in Reassembling the Republic of Letters in the Digital Age, ed. by Howard Hotson & Thomas Wallnig, (Göttingen: Göttingen University Press). 63–67. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17875/gup2019-1146
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)
UH0166
Original
Hendrik Tijnmens to his father Klaes Tijnmens, (14 December 1689), in the Brienne Collection, Sound and Vision The Hague, DB-2004
Model
MIT Libraries, Unlocking History Research Group archive, MC0760, Box 21.
Video
LUV166
Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, the Signed, Sealed, and Undelivered team, and the Unlocking History Research Group, “A POW letter: A son’s diamond-locked letter to his father, France (1689).” Letterlocking Instructional Videos. Unlocking History number 0166/Letterlocking Unique Video number: 166. Filmed: December 2017. Duration: 3:41. Posted: February 2020. URL: https://youtu.be/RX9bxICepJ8. Accessed: March 4, 2025.
LUV256
Amanda Ghassei. "XMT scan animation of a diamond-shaped letter from the Brienne Collection (DB-2004)," Letterlocking Instructional Videos. Unlocking History number 0166/Letterlocking Unique Video number: 0256. Creation date: October 2020. Duration: 0:06. Posted: March 2021. URL: https://youtu.be/6nt-JcI6QSM. Accessed: March 4, 2025.