Rota (Papal Seal)

ROTA (Papal Seal). - Leo IX (a.d. 1048) introduced into the subscriptio of privileges an innovation that was to be preserved through the centuries and still endures today; in place of the sign of the cross that normally preceded the ancient formula Bene valet (v.), now reduced to a monogram, he placed a more complex one, commonly called r. from its shape. It consists of a cross surrounded by two concentric circles forming a circular ring suitable for containing a legend: in the four inner quadrants is marked the name of the pope (L-E-O-P.) and in the ring a scriptural motto (Misericordia Domini plena est terra). This legend is in the Pope's own hand, so the signum acquires the value of a subscriptio.

In the immediate successors of Leo IX the r. had a variety of forms and legends; but from Paschal II (1099) the type that endures to the present was fixed: in the upper quadrants are the names of the Apostles SCS PETRUS and SCS PAULUS, in the lower ones the name of the pope PASCHALIS PP II and in the ring the scriptural motto, which each pope changes as a personal device, preceded by a small cross. In privileges, which lasted until the 14th century, the small cross was always in the pope's own hand and sometimes the motto as well; later (from the 15th century) consistorial letters took up the ancient signum, now placed at the center below the text, but the cross and the legend are no longer autograph.

Following the example of the popes, the archbishops of Ravenna, Benevento and Trani, and the Norman dukes of Sicily, used the r. in the 11th century; it was also used in Spain by the archbishop of Compostela Diego (a.d. 1101), and the rueda or signo rodado of the kings of León (from 1158) was inspired by it, bearing at its center the emblem of the lion in place of the cross. The rueda, in colors after 1252, was used by the kings of León-Castile down to Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella (a.d. 1479).