*Polygraphia*, or *Polygraphice*, the art of writing in various unusual manners or ciphers; as also of deciphering the same. The word is formed from the Greek, πολύς, *multum*, and γράφω, *scriptura*, "writing."

The ancients seem to have been very little acquainted with this art; nor is there any mark of their having gone beyond the Lacedaemonian feasts. Trithemius, Porta, Vigenere, and father Niceron, have written on the subject of polygraphy or ciphers. See Cipher.