---
product_id: 1257852
title: "The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography"
price: "4840 kr"
currency: ISK
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 11
url: https://www.desertcart.is/products/1257852-the-code-book-the-science-of-secrecy-from-ancient-egypt
store_origin: IS
region: Iceland
---

# Covers modern cryptography 400+ pages of insights Explores 5,000 years of history The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

**Price:** 4840 kr
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 🔐 Crack the Code of Knowledge!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
- **How much does it cost?** 4840 kr with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.is](https://www.desertcart.is/products/1257852-the-code-book-the-science-of-secrecy-from-ancient-egypt)

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- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
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## Key Features

- • **Engage Your Mind:** Over 400 pages packed with fascinating facts and theories.
- • **Join the Conversation:** Be part of the elite circle discussing the future of secrecy.
- • **Perfect for Professionals:** A must-read for tech enthusiasts and history buffs alike.
- • **Unlock the Secrets of Time:** Dive into 5,000 years of cryptographic evolution.
- • **From Hieroglyphs to Algorithms:** Discover how ancient methods influence today's tech.

## Overview

The Code Book is a comprehensive exploration of the history and science of cryptography, spanning from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to modern quantum encryption, making it an essential read for anyone interested in the evolution of secrecy and security.

## Description

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography [Singh, Simon] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

Review: Everything you wanted to know about the history of encryption. - The author covered everything there is to know about cryptography, enciphering, and encryption that existed at the time of publishing. While heavy on the science and details, it is easy to follow and worth it. Good source for research.
Review: Entertaining and enlightening - This is a very well written and entertaining book that covers codes from the earliest ones to quantum computer codes. I liked the balance between historical information and some details about how codes and ciphers are created and broken. The book is written for a general audience, but also contains a lot of somewhat technical information, but is not so mathematical as to be inaccessible for most readers. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in codes, ciphers and some of the privacy issues that are entailed with the use and decryption of them. What is in the book – The book goes beyond many others in the area of codes and ciphers in that it discusses very up to date topics (at least up to 1999 when the book was written), such as the ciphers being used for Internet transactions and questions of privacy and code breaking. The book also covers material on the deciphering of hieroglyphics and Linear-B, which are not covered in other books on codes. I found the sections on the techniques used to decipher messages enciphered with a Vigenére table and the algorithms employed by the DES and RSA systems to be very clear and enlightening. The book contains information on the Enigma machine and the work at Bletchley Park in Britain to decipher the messages sent on it. However, this material is not as detailed as the material in books such as Budainsky’s “Battle of Wits”, Kahn’s “Seizing the Enigma” or Sebag-Montefiore’s “The Battle for the Code”, so if this is your primary interest I would direct you to these sources. However, if your interest is more general then I think that “The Code Book” is an excellent choice.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #62,101 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #4 in Web Encryption #25 in Linguistics Reference #190 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (2,198) |
| Dimensions  | 5.12 x 0.81 x 7.93 inches |
| Edition  | Reprint |
| ISBN-10  | 0385495323 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0385495325 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 432 pages |
| Publication date  | August 29, 2000 |
| Publisher  | Vintage |

## Images

![The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71K9KalnGSL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Everything you wanted to know about the history of encryption.
*by R***T on February 10, 2026*

The author covered everything there is to know about cryptography, enciphering, and encryption that existed at the time of publishing. While heavy on the science and details, it is easy to follow and worth it. Good source for research.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Entertaining and enlightening
*by M***T on February 10, 2014*

This is a very well written and entertaining book that covers codes from the earliest ones to quantum computer codes. I liked the balance between historical information and some details about how codes and ciphers are created and broken. The book is written for a general audience, but also contains a lot of somewhat technical information, but is not so mathematical as to be inaccessible for most readers. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in codes, ciphers and some of the privacy issues that are entailed with the use and decryption of them. What is in the book – The book goes beyond many others in the area of codes and ciphers in that it discusses very up to date topics (at least up to 1999 when the book was written), such as the ciphers being used for Internet transactions and questions of privacy and code breaking. The book also covers material on the deciphering of hieroglyphics and Linear-B, which are not covered in other books on codes. I found the sections on the techniques used to decipher messages enciphered with a Vigenére table and the algorithms employed by the DES and RSA systems to be very clear and enlightening. The book contains information on the Enigma machine and the work at Bletchley Park in Britain to decipher the messages sent on it. However, this material is not as detailed as the material in books such as Budainsky’s “Battle of Wits”, Kahn’s “Seizing the Enigma” or Sebag-Montefiore’s “The Battle for the Code”, so if this is your primary interest I would direct you to these sources. However, if your interest is more general then I think that “The Code Book” is an excellent choice.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Shhhhhh!
*by D***S on July 10, 2012*

Like all narrative non-fictional works that, eventually in this case, deal with technical subjects whose details are beyond the scope of the non-specialist reader, this book attempts to strike a balance between two extremes, between a book so chock-full of technical detail that it reads like a textbook and a book that skimps so completely on the heart of the matter at hand that it can only be described as fluff. Singh has done a remarkable job in balancing the two here, it seems to me, and the book is worth any reader's time whose interest is piqued by cryptography. Singh is singularly aided by his subject matter here. This book was recommended to me by a fellow poster on a crossword puzzle blog which I frequent, as a daily solver of the New York Times crossword. The discussions on the blog vary from the whimsical to the technical with all manner of things mooted. So goes Singh's book as well. But what makes this possible is that cryptography and cryptanalysis, for most of human history, has been no more complex, au fond, than a very difficult crossword puzzle. And one is not surprised to see a crossword used during WWII by the British to test potential candidates for work at top secret Bletchley Park, which was responsible for cracking Germany's "Enigma" code. The crossword is provided in the book and was jolly fun to solve. It seems to me that up to the Vigenère polyalphabetic coding, known for centuries as "le chiffre indéchifferable", anyone with an interest in this book could understand and create such a cipher and write an encrypted message in it. Indeed, it's in deciphering such messages without the "keyword" that the technical going gets somewhat involved and perhaps beyond the ken of some readers not familiar with basic statistical analysis, and, not coincidentally, this decipherment of such encryptions is where maths starts to predominate. But it's certainly not difficult to understand the concept of how these encryptions are deciphered, it's merely very tedious and painstaking to do it as Charles Babbage finally did in the 19th Century. Up to this point, for this reader in any event, no trade-off was necessary and Singh is free to fill his tale of codes and ciphers with histories which hinge upon them, starting with the life and death of Mary, Queen of Scots. Also, he makes an elegant segue in the tale of how the Linear B tablets were finally translated, and the toing and froing of certain egotistical archaeologists etc. - It should be noted here the final decipherment and translation of Linear B was the cumulative work of men (and one woman) of genius who were linguistic prodigies. - Again, pass the 19th century and the non-specialist becomes more than a tad lost in the, literally and figuratively, nuts and bolts of Enigma machines and multi-lingual scholarship and fluency. Thus, it's no surprise that the ending of the book was the weakest part for me. Though it must be said that Singh goes out of his way to use "Alice, Bob, Eve" analogies to make the concepts clearer most effectively, being able to do what the main players in the tale are doing is far beyond the amateur's grasp. Also, the book is thirteen years old and the final sections dealing with computer encryption seem a bit dated already. In sum though, a very pleasing, well-written book about the perennial human need to keep matters secret.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
- The Mathematics of Secrets: Cryptography from Caesar Ciphers to Digital Encryption
- Cryptanalysis: A Study of Ciphers and Their Solution (Dover Brain Games & Puzzles)

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*Product available on Desertcart Iceland*
*Store origin: IS*
*Last updated: 2026-02-24*