S A T O R A R E P O T E N E T O P E R A R O T A S

"The Magic Square" So-called because it can be read from left to right, right to left, top to bottom, and from bottom to top, the Magic Square is an early Roman palindrome, examples of which have been found in England, Iraq, the Sudan, Ethiopia, along the Euphrates, at Pompei, Bruges, Rome and also on the wall of the Siena cathedral, probably put there by the builder in 1200 to ward off the evil eye. A possible translation is "The farmer (SATOR) (his name -AREPO?) holds (TENET) the work (OPERA) and the wheels (ROTAS)" , or " The farmer guides his plow with care." It is believed by some to have a connection to Christianity because if all the letters are taken out and rearranged in cruciform, they spell PATER NOSTER / PATER NOSTER, with two As (alpha) and two Os (omega), the ancient Greek word for God ("the beginning and the end"). However, this is doubtful because some squares are known to pre-date Christianity. ….. In the Middle Ages it was believed to be a protection against the bite of rabid dogs if written on the arm. Shrouded in mystery, it crops up in the history of the Knights Templar, on tombstones and in crypts, on the city walls, and in several houses in Pompeii. The only word in the square that is not Latin is AREPO. There has been some conjecture that this was an ancient name - although it appears nowhere else - but it could also be an adaptation of an ancient Celtic verb AREPAR, meaning to be seen from the front and the back at the same time. The idea of using the square as our logo was born because we originally believed the square was only to be found in Siena and the word SATOR or "seminator" suggested the fostering of new ideas.