Mysterious messages : a history of codes and ciphers Gary Blackwood ; designed and illustrated by Jason Henry

Clay, wax and Greece -- The rise and fall of Rome -- Ham and Bacon -- A disk, a grille and a tableau -- Babington, beer and Baconian biliteralism -- Prisons, pigpens and black chambers -- The two revolutions -- Security suffers some severe setbacks -- The blue and the gray (and the green and the brown) -- Agony, dancing men and buried treasure -- The manuscript, the machine and the Mexican message -- Romance, rum and Romaji -- Hounds, magicians and Indians -- Bookies, spies and POWs -- Colossus, Lucifer and Kryptos.

From the ingenious ciphers of Italian princes to the spy books of the Civil War to the advanced techniques of the CIA, codes and code breaking have played important roles throughout history.