Five Latin words in a five-by-five square that reads the same forwards and backwards, horizontally and vertically — found at Pompeii, Cirencester and Dura-Europos.
Record, Folk and Modern are kept apart, and each one carries its source. Spotted a better source? Tell us.
A five-by-five Latin word square — SATOR, AREPO, TENET, OPERA, ROTAS — that reads the same forwards and backwards, horizontally and vertically. Examples include a Pompeii graffito from before AD 62 and another from AD 50–79, one found at Cirencester in 1868, and one at Dura-Europos from about AD 200.
Later, people scratched the square on walls or wrote it on paper as a charm, and cunning folk wrote it out for clients. In Germany it appeared on “fire disks” (a 1743 Saxe-Weimar edict). The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic holds an example (object 1583).
We engrave the full square, all twenty-five letters in their places, so it still reads the same every way.
It opens with the pencil construction, then follows the record, how people used it, and the piece we make today. Every fact in it comes from the sources on this page.
Sterling, gold-plated silver with lab-created stones, and a fully handmade atelier piece. Every tier keeps the symbol whole and true to its source.
925 sterling square, satin finish, the full five-by-five square engraved.
Gold-plated 925 sterling silver (vermeil) — square with a lab-created white stone at each corner.
Hand-engraved gold-plated 925 sterling silver square with a hammered border and a lab-created white stone at each corner. Made to order.