the end of the 13th century
that they found it necessary to add their names in ordinary writing,
or also to employ a less complicated design. This was the commencement
of the modern practice of writing the signature which first came into
vogue in the 14th century.

The Benevalete.

The Rota.

To lend further weight and authority to the subscription, certain
symbols and forms were added at different periods. Imitating, the
corroborative _Legi_ of the Byzantine quaestor and the _Legimus_ of
the Eastern emperors, the Frankish chancery in the West made use of
the same form, notably in the reign of Charles the Bald, in some of
whose diplomas the _Legimus_ appears written in larger letters in red.
The valedictory _Benevalete_, employed in early deeds as a form of
appreciation (see above), appears in Merovingian and in early
Carolingian royal diplomas, and also in papal bulls, as an
authenticating addition to the subscription. In the diplomas it was
written in cursive letters in two lines, _Bene valete_, just to the
right of the incision cut in the sheet to hold fast the seal, which
sometimes even covered part of the word. In the most ancient papal
bulls it was written by the pope himself at the foot of the deed. in
two lines, generally in larger capital or uncial characters, placed
between two crosses. From the beginning of the 11th century it became
the fashion to link the letters; and, dating from the time of Leo IX.,
A.D. 1048-1054, the _Benevalete_ was inscribed in form of a monogram.
During Leo's pontificate it was also accompanied with a flourish
called the _Komma_, which was only an exaggeration of the mark of
punctuation (_periodus_) which from the 9th to the 11th century closed
the subscription and generally resembled the modern semicolon. Leo's
successors abandoned the _Komma_, but the monogrammatic _Benevalete_
continued, invariable in form, but from time to time varying in size.
In Leo IX.'s pontificate also was introduced the _Rota_. This sign,
when it had received its final shape in the 11th century, was in form
of a wheel, composed of two concentric circles, in the space between
which was written the motto or device of the pope (_signum papae_),
usually a short sentence from one of the Psalms or some other portion
of Scripture; preceded by a small cross, which the pontiff himself
sometimes inscribed. The central space within the