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Dictionnaire Abréviatif Chiffré · 1968
Dictionnaire Abréviatif Chiffré, informally known as the Sittler Code,
was a codebook for encryption and decryption of correspondence,
first issued in 1868 by F.-J. Sittler in France, for the affordable price
of 4 French Francs (FFR). It was intended for commercial and diplomatic
use. Like other codebooks it was used for shortening 1 and encrypting
telegraphic messages (telegrams).
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The book measures 195 × 125 mm – somewhat smaller than a DIN A5 piece of
paper – and contains 100 pages plus instructions, in a hard maroon cloth cover. Each page contains 100 words or phrases in French. 2
Empty lines in the book allowed the user to add additional words and
phrases. As part of the code, the pages had to be numbered by the user
in a scrambled order.
Cipher text was created by taking the 2-digit page number,
followed by the 2 digits in front of the word (or phrase). The resulting
4-digit numbers were then written down in groups of five.
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Needless to say that this method of encryption is not very secure,
especially since the books were commercially available from the
publisher.
In addition, most users didn't really bother to scramble the page numbers,
but merely shifted them by adding an offset. This is also the case with
the book featured here — the 12th edition from 1891.
From the written words and notes, it seems likely that it was used
in Belgium for diplomatic correspondence with South America.
Sittler's codebook was also used by the Dutch Department of Foreign Affairs,
where it was known as the Sittler code or the French code.
The Dutch used it for diplomatic communication from at least 1878 to 1931,
and possibly beyond, which means that for more than 50 years, they used
an unsafe cipher [2]. Over the years there had been several indications
that their coded messages were read by other nations, but that was
considered acceptable, as long as they could not be read by the
general public. A
detailed account of this
was presented by Jip Boer at HistoCrypt 2026 [2].
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The coded message was generally shorter that the original text,
which greatly reduced the cost of sending a telegram, especially
when the telegram was sent internationally (long-distance).
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Although French is not a national language in the Netherlands, it was
used by the elite and by diplomats in official correspondence at the time.
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Object Codebook Purpose Secure correspondence Name Dictionnaire Abréviatif Chiffré Author F.-J. Sittler Pubisher see below Year 1868 Binding Maroon cloth gilt Pages 100 (plus instructions: ~105) Words 100 per page Dimensions HWD: 195 × 125 × 10 mm Weight 132 g Price FFR 5 (1891) 1
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FFR 4 in 1868 is the equivalent of EUR 100 in 2026, based on the
income status and cost of living in the late 1800s. Comparable
codebooks from competitors cost FFR 20 to FFR 50 at the time.
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| | Ed. | Year | Publisher | |
| • | 1 | 1868 | A. Augros | |
| • | 2 | 1872 | August Lemoine | |
| • | 4 | 1879 | Lefebvre, Paris | |
| • | 7 | 1885 | Lefebvre, Paris | |
| • | 10 | 1889 | Lefebvre, Paris | |
| • | 11 | 1890 | J. Michelet, Paris | |
| • | 12 | 1891 | J. Michelet, Paris | ← in Crypto Museum collection |
| • | ? | 1894 | Lefebvre, Paris | |
| • | ? | 1898 | J. Michelet, Paris | |
| • | 24 | ? | Boyveau & Chevillet | |
| • | 27 | ? | Boyveau & Chevillet | |
| • | 29 | ? | Boyveau & Chevillet | |
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Tuesday 16 June 2026. Last changed: Saturday, 05 September 2026 - 20:38 CET.
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