Sealed letter of three centuries read without even being opened thanks to the digital “unfolding”

It was written in the 17th century and still remains sealed.

This is a letter which without being opened could be read. The wax seal did not break or cause any damage. The international team of researchers who read it did so digitally. This was achieved with the help of an X-ray scanner used in dental research and a special algorithm.

The “virtual unfolding” allowed scientists to read the contents of the letter that had remained closed for three centuries. The highly sensitive micrograph scanner X-rays was created by the dental research laboratory at Queen Mary University of London.

Researchers from Britain, the United States and the Netherlands, who make up the “Unlocking History” research team, led by Professor Graham Davis of the same university and Janna Dambroglio of MIT, Nature Communications.

Medical scanning technology, used in the field of culture, enabled researchers to see tiny traces of metal from the ink used for the letter. It was then possible to scan 3D images, which – with the help of a new artificial intelligence computer algorithm – were converted into letters. Thus its contents were fully revealed, although the closed letter remained intact.

The letter, according to the Athenian News Agency, was written on July 31, 1697 and contains a request from the French lawyer Jacques Senac to his cousin Pierre Le Perre, a French merchant in The Hague, to send him a copy of an official death certificate. of.

This letter is part of a wider collection called “Brienne” about 2,600 letters sent between 1689-1706 from all over Europe to residents of The Hague without ever – for various reasons – being delivered to the recipients and of which almost 600 remain unread until today. The collection was rescued by the head of the post office of the Dutch city Simon de Brienne and donated to the postal museum.

Photo source: Nature Research / Unlocking History Research Group