In the sixth century it appears, from Procopius, that the Emperor Justin I. made use of a tablet of wood pierced or cut in a similar manner, through which he traced in red ink, the imperial colour, his signature, consisting of the first four letters of his name. It is also stated that Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, the contemporary of Justin, used after the same manner to sign the first four letters of his name through a plate of gold;[I-15] and in Peringskiold’s edition of the Life of Theodoric, the annexed is given as the monogram[I-16] of that monarch. The authenticity of this account has, however, been questioned, as Cochlæus, who died in 1552, cites no ancient authority for the fact. [Footnote I-15: “Rex Theodoricus inliteratus erat, et sic obruto sensu ut in decem annos regni sui quatuor literas subscriptionis edicti sui discere nullatenus potuisset. De qua re laminam auream jussit interrasilem tieri quatuor literas regis habentem, unde ut si subscribere voluisset, posita lamina super chartam, per eam pennam duceret et subscriptio ejus tantum videretur.”--Vita Theodorici Regis Ostrogothorum et Italiæ, autore Joanne Cochlæo; cum additamentis Joannis Peringskiold, 4to. Stockholmiæ, 1699, p. 199.] [Footnote I-16: A monogram, properly, consists of all, or the principal letters of a name, combined in such a manner that the whole appear but as one _character_; a portion of one letter being understood to represent another, two being united to form a third, and so on.] [Illustration] It has been asserted by Mabillon, (Diplom. lib. ii. cap. 10,) that Charlemagne first introduced the practice of signing documents with a monogram, either traced with a pen by means of a thin tablet of gold, ivory, or wood, or impressed with an inked stamp, having the characters in relief, in a manner similar to that in which letters are stamped at the Post-office.[I-17] Ducange, however, states that this mode of signing documents is of greater antiquity, and he gives a copy of the monogram of the Pope Adrian I. who was elected to the see of Rome in 774, and died in 795. The annexed monogram of Charlemagne has been copied from Peringskiold, “Annotationes in Vitam Theodorici,” p. 584; it is also given in Ducange’s Glossary, and in the “Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique.” [Footnote I-17: Mabillon’s opinion is founded on the following passage in the Life of Charlemagne, by his secretary Eginhard: “_Ut scilicet imperitiam hanc [scribendi] honesto ritu suppleret, monogrammatis usum loco proprii signi invexit_.”]