“CRYPTOMENYTICES ET CRYPTOGRAPHIAE. Libri IX” is a codebook on the art of Steganography, published in 1624, one year after Shakespeare’s First Folio.

According to some, it reveals that Sir Francis Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare’s work.

The volume contains two engravings that the Baconian writer Sir Edwin Dunning-Lawrence claims offer hints of Bacon’s involvement. On the title page, an illustration shows the statesman sitting at a desk and writing on a folio-sized manuscript.

Another image depicts Bacon handing a folio to a man carrying a spear.

These theories have had their fair share of believers…
Mark Twain and a Chicago judge, who actually ruled in 1916 that Bacon was the mind behind the plays.