PORTRAIT OF POPE CLEMENT IX (1667–1670) BY CARLO MARATTA
Ring with square-cut, beveled stone on fourth finger of right hand
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Archer M. Huntington, Esq.
PORTRAIT OF POPE JULIUS II (1503–1513) BY RAFAEL
Six rings, three on each hand; on index, fourth and little fingers
Uffizi Palace. Florence.
While the sapphire eventually became the stone especially assigned for use in episcopal rings, the older specimens which have been preserved for us show that, in early times, many other precious stones were employed for this purpose. Indeed, the emerald, or some green stone, seems to have been given the preference at one time, if we can judge from the letter sent by Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne to Apollinaris, Bishop of Valencia. Besides rubies and emeralds, balas-rubies, turquoises, chalcedonies and even the opal were used, while pearls and garnets, also appear occasionally.
Possibly the earliest known specimen of an episcopal ring is in the treasury of the cathedral of Metz. It is believed to have belonged to Arnulphus, who was consecrated Bishop of Metz in 614. This ring, which has been sometimes ascribed to the fourth century, is set with an opaque milk-white carnelian.
An episcopal ring found at Oxford and now in the Waterton Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, is a curious specimen of the adaptation of antique gems to Christian uses. The gold circlet is set with an antique plasma engraved with the bust of a female, the pagan original doing duty for some Christian saint, or perhaps for the Virgin Mary.[432] An intaglio of Jupiter-Serapis was provided by the monks of Durham with an inscription designating it to be a portrait of St. Oswald. Cameos were also used, on occasion, as we read in the enumeration of the precious stones and rings donated by Henry III to the shrine of St. Edward in Westminster Abbey,[433] the following entry: “j chamah in uno annulo pontificali.”