In addition to the stones already mentioned, greatly valued was the Turkey-stone or turquoise, as the "Compassionate turcoyse, which doth tell, By looking pale, the wearer is not well." (Donne, Anatomie of the World.) It was his turquoise ring which Shylock would not have lost "for a wilderness of monkeys."
The use of charm rings seems to have been not uncommon in early times. It was one of the articles of impeachment against Hubert de Burgh, the great justiciar of Henry III, that whereas the King had in his treasury a ring which rendered the wearer invincible in battle, his minister furtively removed the same and bestowed it upon Llewellyn of Wales. As charm rings, too, must be reckoned those which enclosed small relics. But rings so used seem for the most part to have been worn attached by a ribbon or chain to the neck, and not on the finger.
Since such highly valued objects as charmed stones could only be obtained by a few, cabalistic inscriptions often took their place. Many of the devotional rings with the names Jesus, Mary, and Joseph engraved on them, were used as a preservative against the plague; but the most popular inscription was, as has been seen, the names of the Three Kings of the East, which were a powerful charm against peril by travel and sudden death. Such rings were worn against the cramp. There were also caract rings of superstitious use, which bore charms in the form of inscriptions, such as ananizapta. Many other rings of this class have cabalistic names and strange barbaric words and combinations utterly unintelligible.
The fyancel or wedding ring appears to be of Roman origin, and was usually given at the betrothal as a pledge of the engagement. Two forms of these rings are the "gimmel" and the "posy" rings. Gimmel rings (French, jumelle, a twin) are composed of two hoops forming, when closed, one ring, and so constructed as to play when open one within the other. They are of two sorts: those which are either plain or set with precious stones, and those which have the device of the fede or two right hands joined.
Inscriptions or mottoes, as a rule in Norman-French, are to be found on rings of the fourteenth, and more frequently on those of the fifteenth century. They were called "chansons" and also "resons" or "reasons," and later, poesies, posies, or posys. These love inscriptions, generally engraved on the outside of the ring (though placed inside in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) are for the most part the same as those found on the brooches of the time, inscriptions such as Je suis ici en lieu d'ami, and the like, being of frequent occurrence. More rarely the motto is in English, as on the beautiful iconographic gold ring in the British Museum. New Year's Day among the Romans was a dies faustus and objects of jewellery were usually among the presents which it was the custom to exchange on that occasion. In the Middle Ages also the advent of the New Year was celebrated by the bestowal of presents. Among these estrennes jewellery was a prominent item, and on the rings of the period (like the one figured on p. 150) the inscription, en bon an frequently occurs.
A very extensive group of mediæval finger rings is formed by signets. These are marked with some device, such as an animal, a bird, a tree, or any other object, so that they could be easily recognised; hence they were often given as credentials to a messenger. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries rings of silver, and occasionally of gold, occur, with a crest or coat-of-arms, or with devices in the form of initials, and certain arbitrary signs called merchants' marks, which were used by merchants and others not entitled to armorial bearings. Piers Plowman speaks of "merchantes merkes ymedeled in glasse." Such rings were often worn on the thumb. Though armorial signets were worn in Italy as early as the fourteenth century, they were not common in England till the commencement of the sixteenth.
Somewhat similar are certain devotional signet rings of silver or base metal engraved with an initial—generally the letter I surmounted by a coronet. The I is probably the initial of the Saviour's name, such rings being worn from a belief in the efficacy of holy names as preservatives from evil.
In connection with the mediæval use of ancient engraved stones, the fashion of wearing Roman intaglios in rings has already been noticed. Upon the metal setting around these gems a legend in Latin was often engraved; the most usual inscription being sigillum secreti, sigillum meum, or the word sigillum, followed by the name of the owner ([Pl. XXIII, 11]).
Rings which have the appearance of being purely ornamental were worn throughout the Middle Ages in considerable numbers both by men and women; yet at the same time it must ever be borne in mind that the stones set in them had probably in the eyes of the possessors a value quite independent of their use as ornaments.
In the Gold Ornament Room of the British Museum is a collection of five English rings of silver of the twelfth century. They are of small intrinsic value, but of considerable interest as authenticated examples of ornamental rings of the period; for with the exception of those found on the fingers of prelates, the date of early rings is sometimes difficult to determine. The rings were dug up at Lark Hill, near Worcester, in 1854, together with upwards of two hundred pennies of Henry II. They probably date, therefore, from about the end of the century.[104]