MONOGRAM. - The monogram results from the interweaving of all the letters making up a word, or only of the initials or the consonants that constitute it; for the most part it is used for proper names. There is no fixed rule for reading monograms; in fact Nicomachus Flavianus asserted that the monogram engraved on his ring, which he used to seal his letters, "magis intelligi quam legi promptum est" (Ep., II, 12). It has remote origins: examples are found in Greece, on the coins of various cities; in Rome, under the Republic and the Empire.
I. ARCHAEOLOGY
For the monogram of the two names HICOCYCE XPHCTOC (Jesus Christ) there is a fine example in the cemetery "inter duas lauros," where on a marble slab one reads in Greek the wish addressed to an ΕΖΟΤΙΠΕΡΑΝΤΙC ΖΗCEC ΕΝ ΘΕΩ Ης * that is, "O Esuperantius, may you live in God Jesus Christ" (G. Wilpert, Beiträge zur christlichen Archäologie, Rome 1908, p. 91). In some cases the initial letter is larger and all around it are arranged the other letters composing the name, as, for example, in the inscription from the cemetery of Callixtus of a ΜΟΛΕCΤΟC (G. B. De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, II, Rome 1867, pl. 43, no. 44), in that of a ΚΗ(Ν)ΟΦΡΕΙΝΟC in the same cemetery (op. cit., pl. 43, no. 43), or in Dominika, where De Rossi proposed reading ΕΛΛΑC Η ΚΑΙ ΛΕΥΚΑΛΙΑ (cf. Bull. arch. crist., 2nd series, 6 [1875], p. 61 and pl. 5, 1), in the monogram of a Flavilla (loc. cit., pl. 5, 2) in Praetextatus for the name ΑΓΑΙΠΗ (G. Wilpert, La cripta dei Papi e la cappella di S. Cecilia, Rome 1910, p. 38, fig. 21), in the monogram of John II (533-35), in the chancel screens in S. Clemente in Rome (cf. G. B. De Rossi, Scoperta di un insigne speleo mitrico sotto l'antica basilica di S. Clemente, in Bull. arch. crist., 2nd series, 1 [1870], pls. x-xi, no. 4). Again De Rossi illustrated the monograms of the bishops Peter, Neon and Julian existing on the cushions of capitals in the churches of S. Agata and S. Vitale in Ravenna, of bishop Vincent on a capital of the church of S. Giovanni Maggiore in Naples, of bishop Euphrasius at Parenzo (La basilica di S. Giovanni Maggiore a Napoli e i nomi dei vescovi incisi sui capitelli nelle chiese di Italia, d'Africa e di Oriente, in Bull. arch. crist., 3rd series, 5 [1880], p. 160 ff.).
Enrico Josi
II. DIPLOMATICA
In the Middle Ages the use of monogrammed seal rings was very frequent; they were used in place of autograph subscriptions. A letter of St. Avitus, around 520, mentions them, for example. Numerous monogrammed rings of ecclesiastical or lay dignitaries and of private individuals, used as seals, survive, as well as others with a monogram having a purely ornamental purpose, or forming the owner's name, or a religious invocation.
In diplomatics the monogram is a sign composed of a cross or of a large capital letter, to which other small letters are linked, or by way of a nexus; it is placed at the end of the text of diplomas, in place of the king's subscription. The monogram first comprises the letters making up the sovereign's name, or later also those of his titles and domains. In the diplomas of the Merovingians, where it appears sporadically, it replaces the monarch's signature especially if he, on account of his minority, cannot write; with Charlemagne it begins to be used systematically. His monogram is arranged in the form of a cross; those of other sovereigns are centered on the initial of the name.
In the monogram a distinction is made between the actual letters and the connecting strokes: the former, and part of the strokes, are written by the chancery official, while one or more strokes, written in different ink, are considered autograph signs of the king. The formulae explicitly declare the sovereign's intervention, who in this way takes part in the completion of the diploma, but it is not certain that this always happened. Monograms with some attested sign of the monarch are called "signed monograms." In the diploma the monogram is generally accompanied by the formula: "signum manus N. gloriosissimi regis," or similar. Under Sigismund and Frederick III the sign was executed, it seems, with a stamp; in the time of Charles IV it fell into disuse, because the sovereigns inco-
arranged in a nexus; it appears for the first time in the diplomas of Henry III (1042) and ends with Henry V (ca. 1125). Finally, a monogrammatic sign appears in papal bulls in the middle of the 11th century: the auspicious formula Bene valet (v.) is gradually contracted, until it forms the well-known M. - See plate LXXXIX.
