In Sempère’s “History of the Cortes of Spain,” several examples are given of the use of fanciful monograms in that country at an early period, and which were probably introduced by its Gothic invaders. That such marks were stamped is almost certain; for the first, which is that of Gundisalvo Tellez, affixed to a charter of the date of 840, is the same as the “sign” which was affixed by his widow, Flamula, when she granted certain property to the abbot and monks of Cardeña for the good of her deceased husband’s soul. The second, which is of the date of 886, was used both by the abbot Ovecus, and Peter his nephew; and the third was used by all the four children of one Ordoño, as their “sign” to a charter of donation executed in 1018. The fourth mark is a Runic cypher, copied from an ancient Icelandic manuscript, and given by Peringskiold in his “Annotations on the Life of Theodoric:” it is not given here as being from a stencil or a stamp, but that it may be compared with the apparently Gothic monograms used in Spain. [Illustration] “In their inscriptions, and in the rubrics of their books,” says a writer in the Edinburgh Review[I-19] “the Spanish Goths, like the Romans of the Lower Empire, were fond of using combined capitals--of _monogrammatising_. This mode of writing is now common in Spain, on the sign-boards and on the shop-fronts, where it has retained its place in defiance of the canons of the council [of Leon], The Goths, however, retained a truly _Gothic_ custom in their writings. The Spanish Goth sometimes subscribed his name; or he drew a _monogram_ like the Roman emperors, or the sign of the _cross_ like the Saxon; but not unfrequently he affixed strange and fanciful marks to the deed or charter, bearing a close resemblance to the Runic or magical knots of which so many have been engraved by Peringskiold, and other northern antiquaries.” [Footnote I-19: No. lxi. p. 108, where the preceding Gothic marks, with the explanation of them, are given.]