for the choice of the Sapphire (or ancient Hyacinthus), besides its supposed sympathy with the heavens, mentioned by Solinus, and its connection with Apollo the god of day, was its violet colour, agreeing with the vestments appropriated to the episcopal office.

The bishop's violet represents the inferior purple, Conchylia, or Hyacinthina of the Romans; a colour which Pliny compares to that of the "angry sea," a very dark violet indeed, as any one will remember who has sailed on the Mediterranean in rough weather. The scarlet of the cardinal's robes is the true Tyrian dye, "the colour of clotted blood; dark when looked at directly, but brilliant when held above the eye;" and the "purple ink," with which the emperors signed their names to all documents, is, as plainly appears in the Byzantine charters preserved to the present time, of a bright scarlet colour. Hence the robe in the Passion is by one evangelist called purple, by another scarlet." I therefore think it probable that, when such mediæval rings occur set with a Ruby instead of a Sapphire, they have belonged to bishops who were at the same time, cardinals.

These rings were often, perhaps always, interred with the prelates to whom they had belonged. Two were found a few years ago in the coffins of ancient bishops of Hereford; others found under similar circumstances are preserved in the library of York Cathedral; and they often occur in collections, obtained, no doubt, from the accidental desecration of episcopal sepulchres. The one discovered in the stone coffin of a bishop of St. Omer was entirely of gold, the head

8 Laus ei summa in colore sanguinis concreti nigricans aspectu, idemque suspectu refulgens. Unde et Homero purpureus dicitur san

guis.-Plin. ix. 62.

4 χλαμύδα κοκκινην, Mat. πορτ pupav, Mark.

formed of three trefoils, combined together in a very tasteful pattern.10

The custom of burying ecclesiastics together with all their official insignia, appears to have lasted far down into the Middle Ages, for amongst the amusing adventures of Andreuccio da Perugia, related by Boccaccio, he, when reduced to despair, joins some thieves in plundering the tomb of the Archbishop of Naples, interred the previous day in all his precious vestments, and with a ring on his finger valued at 500 scudi. Two parties of plunderers, the last headed by a priest of the cathedral, visit the tomb in succession, and almost at the same time, to which circumstance Andreuccio owes his escape from a horrible death, and returns home in possession of the ring, which more than makes up for all his losses.

At one time it seemed to me probable that this common practice of plundering the tombs as soon as the corpse was deposited therein, even by the very parties who ought to have most religiously guarded the sacredness of the treasure, gave origin to those huge rings of gilt metal so often seen in cabinets of antiques, bearing either the titles or the coat of arms of some pope or bishop. As none that I have met with are of earlier date than the fifteenth century, one was almost led to the conclusion that the universal violation of the sanctity of the tomb, even by the supposed guardians of it, had induced the friends of the deceased prelates to substitute these counterfeit insignia of their rank for the real ones, which had been found to offer such irresistible temptations to the plunderers. That these metal rings were occasionally

10 One of the earliest, if not the earliest extant, has lately been shown me, said to have been found with other insignia in the tomb of the Abbot of Folleville, near Amiens, in

1856. It is set with a large rough Sapphire, is made of electrum, and hollow, and entirely covered with the elegant guilloche pattern so constant in Romanesque ornamentation.

deposited in tombs appears from these words of Palatin; Gesta Pont. Rom., III., 653. "A. S. 1607. In sepulchro Sixti IV. repertus est annulus Pauli II., cum hac nota, PAVLVS II." This ring was sold (for 7 guineas) in Roby's collection of miscellaneous works of art, by Christie and Manson, May 3, 1855. In the catalogue of Major Macdonald's Collection, sold by Sotheby and Wilkinson, Ap. 20, 1857, No. 9 is "A large ring of gilt bronze set with Amethyst, with raised figures in high relief, and finely chased. It formerly belonged to Pope Boniface, from whose tomb it was taken during the popular insurrection in Rome, 1849." But here it will be as well to give a more minute description of these rings, which may also serve to direct the attention of antiquaries to any allusions to the use of them occurring in medieval writers, or to the circumstances under which they may be brought to light at the present day. They are of very large dimensions, and evidently never designed to be worn upon the finger; some I have seen which must weigh nearly a pound; they are all of the same form, the shanks being four-sided, and the head square, and set with a slab of Crystal or pale Amethyst, or sometimes with a piece of glass of that colour. The upper part of the shank usually bears the shield of the owner on one side; on the other some religious design, as the emblems of the evangelist. These ornaments are cut out of the metal in high relief, and often in a good bold Gothic style. On the outside of the narrow part of the shank an inscription is often found in Gothic letters, giving the title of the owner, as EPIS. LUGDUN: but they more frequently are without any inscription, and appear always to have been strongly gilt.

One of the most eminent archæologists of the present day

1 Preserved in the Bronze Room of the Uffizi, Florence.

is of the opinion that they served as credential rings to authenticate the mission of any person despatched upon the business of the owner, and that they had no connection with the ring of investiture, a valuable jewel, and one always retained by the prelate, both in life and death. This theory is supported by the fact, that duplicates of these metal rings, belonging to the same individual pope or bishop, are still in existence, which certainly would not have been the case had merely a single one been made for the sole purpose of accompanying the corpse within his last resting place. In the Archæological Journal of some years back is figured a ring of this class (but entirely without ornamental chasing on the sides), set with a square crystal, and inscribed on the upper part of the shank, ROGERII REGIS, probably one of the Neapolitan kings of that name. This is the earliest instance known to me, and confirms the hypothesis that these rings served merely as credentials to the envoys of their possessors. It is curious that, with these two exceptions, they should all have belonged to ecclesiastics of various ranks. At present this class of antiques is extensively forged in Germany, as well as all other varieties of medieval seals and signets; the high price they command from collectors of the relics of the Middle Ages is a great temptation to the manufacture, which also presents but little difficulty to a skilful worker in metal. Hence all objects of this kind which appear without a wellauthenticated pedigree ought to be examined by the amateur with a very suspicious and critical eye.

2 Another lately seen by me has a Fleur-de-Lys on one side, and a crown (apparently of the 14th

century) on the other, marking its French and regal origin.

USE OF ANTIQUE GEMS IN MEDIEVAL TIMES.

The foregoing dissertation naturally introduces the subject of the medieval seals and rings, which are so often found set with antique intagli for the purpose of signets. The subjects engraved upon them were always interpreted by the owners as representations of scriptural personages and events. Thus a triple mask stood for the Trinity, with the legend added

around the stone, "Hæc est Trinitatis Imago;" and a similar intaglio I have seen, a Jacinth, set in a massy gold ring, with "Noel," the corruption of Emmanuel, repeated on each side of the setting, evidently in a similar sense. Isis nursing Horus naturally passed for the Virgin and Child; nor was this substitution confined to intagli alone, for the "Black Virgins" of certain French churches (revered from the earliest period of the Middle Ages, but unfortunately destroyed in the general wreck of everything ecclesiastical in 1794), were discovered by Montfaucon to be basalt figures of the above-named Egyptian deities, which, having merely