Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/581

Rh KING 561 worn by freedmen and iron by slaves. Under Justinian even these restrictions passed away. In the 3d and 4th centuries Roman rings were made engraved with Christian symbols. Fig. 1 shows two silver rings of the latter part of the 4th century, which were found in 1881 concealed in a hole in the pavement of a Koman villa at Fifehead Neville, Dorset, together with some coins of the same period. Both have the monogram of Christ, and one has a dove within an olive wreath rudely cut on the silver bezel. These rings are of special interest, as Roman objects with any Christian device have very rarely FIG. i. Roman silver been found in Britain. Large numbers of gold rings have been found in many parts of Europe in the tombs of early Celtic races. They are usually of very pure gold, often penannular in form with a slight break, that is, in the hoop so as to form a spring. They are often of gold wire formed into a sort of rope, or else a simple bar twisted in an ornamental way. Some of the quite plain penannular rings were used in the place of coined money. Throughout the Middle Ages the signet ring was a thing of great importance in religious, legal, commercial, and private matters. The episcopal ring a was solemnly conferred upon the newly made bishop together with his crozier, a special formula for this being inserted in the Pontifical. In the time of Innocent III. (1194) this was ordered to be of pure gold mounted with a stone that was not engraved ; but this rule appears not to have been strictly kept. Owing to the custom of burying the episcopal ring in its owner's coffin a great many fine examples still exist. Among the splendid collection of rings formed by the distinguished naturalist Edmund Waterton, and now in the South Kensington Museum, is a fine gold episcopal ring decorated with niello, and inscribed with the name of Alhstan, bishop of Sherbornefrom824 to 867 (see fig. 2). 2 In many cases an antique gem was mounted in the bishop's ring, and often an inscrip- tion was added in the gold setting of the gem to give a Christian name to the pagan figure. The monks of Durham, for example, made an intaglio of Jupiter Serapis into a portrait of St Oswald by adding the legend CAPVT s. OSWALDI. In other cases the engraved gem appears to have been merely regarded as an ornament without meaning, as, for example, a magnificent gold ring found in the coffin of Seffrid, bishop of Chichester (1125- 1151), in which is mounted a Gnos- tic intaglio. Another in the Water- ton collection bears a Roman cameo in plasma of a female head in high relief ; the gold ring itself is of the 12th century. More commonly the episcopal ring was set with a large sapphire, ruby, or other stone cut en cabochon, that is, without facets, and very magnificent in effect (see FIG. 3. 13th-century episco- fio TJ. ,-1 -i . -i, pal ring of Italian work- g. 3). It was worn over the bishop's manship, of gold, set with gloves, usually on the fore-finger of a ppJire m cabochon. the right hand ; and this accounts for the large size of the hoop of these rings. In the 15th and 16th centuries bishops often wore three or four rings on the right hand FIG. 2. Ring of Bishop Alhstan. 1 See a paper by Edm. Waterton, in Arch. Jour., xx. p. 224. 2 See NIELLO (vol. xvii. p. 494) for a cut of another specimen of an early ring decorated in a similar way. in addition to a large jewel which was fixed to the back of each glove. Cramp rings were much worn during the Middle Ages Cramp as a preservative against cramp. They derived their rings, virtue from being blessed by the king ; a special form of service was used for this, and a large number of rings were consecrated at one time, usually when the sovereign touched patients for the king's evil. Decade rings-were not uncommon, especially in the 15th Decade century ; these were so called from their having ten rings, knobs along the hoop of the ring, and were used, after the manner of rosaries, to say nine aves and a paternoster. In some cases there are only nine knobs, the bezel of the ring being counted in, and taking the place of the gaude in a rosary. The bezel of these rings is usually engraved with a sacred monogram or word. Gemel or gimmel rings, from the Latin gemellus, a twin, Qemel were made with two hoops fitted together, and could be rings, worn either together or singly ; they were common in the 16th and 17th centuries, and were much used as betrothal rings. Posy rings, 3 so called from the " poesy " or rhyme en- p os y graved on them, were specially common in the same cen- rings, turies. The name posy ring does not occur earlier than the 16th century. A posy ring inscribed with "love me and leave me not " is mentioned by Shakespeare (Mer. of Ven., act v. sc. 1). The custom of inscribing rings with mottoes or words of good omen dates from a very early time. Greek and Roman rings exist with words such as ZHCAIC, XAIPE, KAAH, or votis meis Claudia vivas. In the Middle Ages many rings were inscribed with words of cabal- istic power, such as anam zapta, or Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, the supposed names of the Magi. In the 17th century they were largely used as wedding rings, with such phrases as "love and obaye," "fear God and love me," or " mulier viro subjecta esto." In the same century memorial rings with a name and Memo date of death were frequently made of very elaborate rings, form, enamelled in black and white ; a not unusual design was two skeletons bent along the hoop, and holding a coffin which formed the bezel. In the 15th and 16th centuries signet rings engraved Mer- with a badge or trademark were much used by merchants chants and others ; these were not only used to form seals, but rin 8 s - the ring itself was often sent by a trusty bearer as the proof of the genuineness of a bill of demand. 4 At the same time private gentlemen used massive rings wholly of gold with their initials cut on the bezel, and a graceful knot of flowers twining round the letters. Of this kind is Shakespeare's ring, now in the British Museum, which was found near the church of Stratford ; on it is cut a cord arranged in loops between the letters W and S. Other fine gold rings of this period have coats of arms or crests with graceful lambrequins. Poison rings with a hollow bezel were used in classical Poisor times ; as, for example, that by which Hannibal killed rings. himself, and the poison ring of Demosthenes. Pliny records that, after Crassus had stolen the gold treasure from under the throne of Capitoline Jupiter, the guardian of the shrine, to escape torture, " broke the gem of his ring in his mouth and died immediately." The mediaeval anello della morte, supposed to be a Venetian invention, was actually used as an easy method of murder. Among the elaborate ornaments of the bezel a hollow point made to work with a spring was concealed ; it communicated with a receptacle for poison in a cavity behind, in such a 3 See Waterton, in Arch. Jour., xvi. p. 307. 4 The celebrated ring given to Essex by Queen Elizabeth was meant to be used for a similar purpose. It is set with a fine cameo por- trait of Elizabeth cut in sardonyx, of Italian workmanship. XX 71