Rings for the finger : $b from the earliest known times to the present, with full descriptions of the origin, early making, materials, the archæology, history, for affection, for love, for engagement, for wedding, commemorative, mourning, etc.Kunz, George Frederick
History
Rings for the finger : $b from the earliest known times to the present, with full descriptions of the origin, early making, materials, the archæology, history, for affection, for love, for engagement, for wedding, commemorative, mourning, etc.
Kunz, George Frederick
Rings; Rings -- Folklore
In 1802 there was found in Coventry Park an ancient gold ring, weighing
1 oz., 13 dwts., 8 grains, and bearing a number of religious designs.
In the central division was depicted Christ rising from the tomb, the
hammer, ladder, sponge and other emblems of the Passion being shown
in the background. In two compartments on either side were graven the
five wounds, with the following Old English legends: “the well of
everlasting lyffe,” “the well of confort,” “the well of gracy,” “the
well of pity,” “the well of merci.” Still existent traces evidenced
that black enamel had been used in the figure of Christ, and red
enamel to picture the wounds and the drops of blood. Inside the hoop
ran the following legend: “Vulnera quinq. dei sunt medicina mei, pia
crux et passio xpi sunt medicina mihi. Jaspar, Melchior, Baltasar,
ananyzapta tetragrammaton.” The whole signifying that the wounds and
Passion of Christ were to serve as remedial agents for the wearer, the
healing virtue of the ring being strengthened by the names of the Three
Kings, by an enigmatic Gnostic epithet, and by the tetragrammaton,
or the four Hebrew letters forming the Ineffable Name. A series of
sixteen mourning rings “of fyne Gold,” bequeathed by Sir Edmond Shaw,
Alderman of London, by his will made about 1487, were “to be graven
with the well of pitie, the well of mercie, and the well of everlasting
life.”[577]
It has been conjectured that the names of the Magi, the “Three
Kings,” Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar, which nowhere appear in the
Scriptures, may have been originally titles or epithets of Mithras,
signifying respectively “White One,” “King of Light,” and “Lord of
Treasures.”[578] The invocation or inscription of these names was, in
early Christian and mediæval times, believed to have great curative
effect, more especially against epilepsy, and hence they were often
engraved on rings. A number of these may be seen in the British Museum.
Cologne Cathedral has been and still is the great centre of attraction
for all devotees of the Three Kings, for their remains are said to
have been brought there in 1162 from Milan, whither they had been
miraculously conveyed long before from Constantinople.
Medicinal rings were often used in the reign of Elizabeth, and one was
given to this queen by Lord Chancellor Hatton. Writing to Sir Thomas
Smith, under date of September 11, 158-, Hatton says: “I am likewise
bold to recommend my most humble duty to our dear mistress [Queen
Elizabeth] by this letter and ring, which hath the virtue to expell
infectious airs, and is (as it telleth me) to be worn between the sweet
duggs, the chaste nest of pure constancy. I trust, sir, when the virtue
is known, it shall not be refused for the value.”[579] This rather
coarse flattery would not offend the Virgin Queen, who habitually
indulged in very plain speaking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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