RAFFAELLE'S SPOSALIZIO.
(Vol. vii., p. 595.)
With regard to your correspondent Mr. G. Brindley Ackworth's Query respecting Raffaelle's Sposalizio, I am induced to think that the custode at the church of the Santa Croce at Florence was right as to his information. In the copy which I have of the "Ordo ad faciendum Sponsalia," according to the ancient use of Salisbury, the ring is undoubtedly to be placed on the bride's right hand. Wheatly indeed says, that "when the man espouses his wife with it (i.e. the ring), he is to put it upon the fourth finger of her left hand;" and then refers, for the reason of this, to the rubric of Salisbury Manual, which speaks of the vein going from this finger directly to the heart.
Now, what are the precise words of this rubric? After giving directions for the benediction of the ring, provided it has not previously been blessed, the rubric goes on thus:
"Si autem antea fuerit annulus ille benedictus tunc statim postquam vir posuerit annulum super librum, accipiens sacerdos annulum tradat ipsum viro: quem vir accipiat manu sua dextera cum tribus principalioribus digitis, et manu sua sinistra tenens dexteram sponsæ docente sacerdote dicat."
The man is to receive the ring from the priest with the three principal fingers of the right hand; and then, holding the right hand of the bride with his own left hand, he shall say, "With this ring," &c. He is then to place the ring on her thumb, saying, "In nomine Patris;" then on her second finger, saying "et Filii;" then on the third finger, saying "et Spiritus Sancti;" then on the fourth finger, saying "Amen;" and there he is to leave it. There is not a word said about the bride's left hand, the right is alone mentioned; and why should the man hold her right hand with his left, but that with his right hand he may the more easily place the ring, first on the thumb, then on the other fingers of her right hand, until it arrives at its ideal destination?
While I am upon this subject, allow me to point out another singular direction given in a rubric in this same "Ordo ad faciendum Sponsalia." When the woman is, as we term it, given away, if she be a spinster, she is to have her hand uncovered; if a widow, covered: the words are—
"Deinde detur femina a patre suo, vel ab amicis ejus: quod si puella sit, discoopertam habeat manum, si vidua, tectam."
There is no reason given for this distinction, nor do I ever remember to have seen it noticed.
F. B. W.
The Sposalizio, or "espousals," or betrothing, is certainly a different ceremony from the marriage. Is not the fact of young ladies popularly considering and calling the third finger of the right hand the engaged finger, and wearing a ring on that finger when engaged, a confirmation of your correspondent's idea, that at this "betrothal" or "espousals" (compare the phrase "his espoused wife" of Mary before her marriage with Joseph) the ring was placed in the right hand; at the marriage ceremony on the left?
Sc.