The Sessa Marriage Ring

In the year 1845, an interesting ring was found at Sessa, (the Suessa Auruncorum of the ancients,) situate in the Terra de Livaro, Kingdom of Naples. We here give the original signet (see image). A drawing of the same with its outer edge, which, as it will be seen, contained the name of an after owner and the outer ring, with its religious maxims along its edge, appears in the Archaeological Journal. The stone which forms the signet is of a deepred color and, apparently, a species of agate. In the centre are engraved two right hands joined together, with the following letters above and below, C. C. P. S., I. P. D. Our cut is somewhat larger than the original. Judging from the workmanship of the signet, it is believed to have been executed in the period between the reigns of Severus and Constantine or, in other words, about the middle of the third century. The interpretation of these letters must be left to conjecture. It would appear, however, to have been regarded as an object of value or interest at a later period, when it was set in gold for the person whose name appears round the stone in capital letters, which are to be thus read:

SIGILLY THOMASH DE ROGERIIS DE SUESSA

Sigillum Thomasii de Rogeriis de Suessa.

On the outer side of the hoop of the ring are two other inscriptions, also in capital letters. The first reads:

XPS VINCIT XPS REGNAT XPS IMPERA

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.

And the second:

ET VERBU: CARO: FACTU: E: ET ABITAUIT: INOB

Et verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis.

The workmanship of these inscriptions is exceedingly good and the letters well formed and sharply cut. It will be remarked that in the first legend on the hoop the letter T. in the word Imperat is omitted for want of space; and in the second, for the same reason, not only the final m, as usual, is twice suppressed, but the word est is given in the abbreviated form of e; several letters are joined together; the aspirate is omitted in habitavit; and the letter n is made to serve for the final of in and the initial of nobis. As to the date of this ring, it may, very probably, be ascribed to the thirteenth century. There can be no doubt that the owner, Thomasius de Rogeriis, must have been a member of the Neapolitan family of Roggieri. The legend upon the ring, Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat, is found, also, in the series of Anglo-Gothic gold coins from the reign of Edward III. of England to that of Henry VI.

We have been favored with the perusal of a presentation copy of the article (in the Archaeological Journal) and from it have taken the above explanation. This copy was sent by the possessor of the ring, George Borrett, of Southampton, England, Esquire, to Isaac E. Cotheal, of New-York, Esquire; and it has, interleaved, (with the addition of a wax impression,) the following MS. note: "The Abbe Farrari, a priest attached to the Church of Sta. Maria in Comedia, (also called the Bocci della Venite,) submitted it to some members of the Propaganda at Rome, 12th April, 1845, who described it as follows: Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat, et verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Sigillum Thomasii de Rogeriis de Suessa: Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands and the Word was made flesh and dwelt in us. The seal of Thomas de Rogeriis de Suessa.

"The veritable signet of Cicero (i.e.) the coral in the centre of the ring only. There were members of the Propaganda who thought it resembled some impressions attached to documents in the Vatican of the Roman Governor in Judea, 'Pontius Pilate.' The gold setting is supposed to be about the eighth or ninth century by some dignitary in triumph over the pagan philosopher or governor."

Notwithstanding what is thus said, we are strongly under the impression that it was a mystical ring or one worn in remembrance of a marriage. Upon marbles and gems which illustrate the marriage ceremony, the bride and bridegroom are represented with their respective right hands joined. In Montfaucon (and figured also in Maffei) is a gem which has marital symbols and among them a ring and the clasped right hand; and, in the same work, (Montfaucon,) we find a ring precisely in the form and of the size of the Sessa ring, with right hands disposed in exactly the same manner and also letters above and below the emblem. The words there are:

PROTEROS

VGIAE

Proteros and Hygie; and Montfaueon says, "Cela marque peut etre le mariage contracte entre les deux."

Addison, in his Dialogue on Medals, says: "The two hands that join one another are emblems of Fidelity;" and he quotes (Ovid's Met. lib. iv.):

"--Inde Fides dextraque data."

(Thence faith and the right hand joined.) And also Seneca (Hure. Fur. lib. iv.):

"Sociemus animos, pignus hoc fidei cape,

Continge dextram."

(Let us unite souls, receive this pledge of faith, grasp the right hand.)

We can hardly imagine a more perfect token of love, affection or friendship than this of right hands clasped and the names of giver and receiver. We commend it to loving friends and jewellers.

This joining of right hands appears upon ancient English marriage-rings. Here is one, with its motto, The Nazarene (see image).

A silver wedding-ring, dug up at Somerton Castle, Lincolnshire, has a poesy very common in former times:

"I love you, my sweet dear heart.

Go I pray you please my love."

There is a marriage gold ring of the time of Richard the Second of England, having a French motto, translated, Be of good heart, and bearing the figure of St. Catharine with her wheel, emblematical of good fortune, and St. Margaret, to whom Catholics address their devotions for safe delivery in childbrith. American ring, in the possession of a young man, whose grandfather presented it on his wedding day to his wife. It has a piece of jet set in it and is cut into raised angular facets. On the inside is engraved:

"First love Christ, that died for thee,

Next to him, love none but me."

T. A. G.

John Dunton, a London bookseller and who is mentioned in the Dunciad, describes, in his autobiography, his wedding-ring: as having two hearts united upon it and this poesy :

"God saw thee

Most fit for me."

This would not seem to have attached to his second wife; for she left him and wrote in one of her letters, " I and all good people think you never married me for love, but for my money."

Dr. John Thomas, who was Bishop of Lincoln in 1753, married four times. The motto or poesy on the wedding-ring at his fourth marriage was:

"If I survive,

I'll make them five."

This Rev. Dr. John Thomas was a man of genial humor. He used to tell a story of his burying a body; and a woman came "and pulled me," said he, "by the sleeve in the middle of the service. 'Sir, sir, I want to speak to you.' 'Prythee,' says I, 'woman, wait till I have done.' 'No, sir, I must speak to you immediately.' 'Why then, what is the matter?' 'Why sir,' says she, 'you are burying a man who died of the small-pox next to my poor husband, who never had it.'"

19. Heroes, philosophers, poets--indeed, men of all classes leave remembrances in the shape of rings. The will of Washington contains this: "To my sisters-in-law Hannah Washington and Mildred Washington, to my friends Eleanor Stuart, Hannah Washington of Fairfield and Elizabeth Washington of Hayfield, I give each a mourning ring of the value of one hundred dollars. These bequests are not made for the intrinsic value of them, but as mementoes of my esteem and regard." Shakspeare bequeathes such tokens to several friends--among them, to his brother players, whom he calls "my poor fellows"--"twenty shillings eight pence apiece to buy them rings." Pope bequeathed sums of five pounds to friends, who were to lay them out in rings. This great poet was no admirer of funerals that blackened all the way or of gorgeous tombs: "As to my body, my will is that it be buried near the monument of my dear parents at Twickenham, with the addition after the words filius fecit of these only, et sibi: Qui abiit anno 17-, oetatis--: and that it be carried to the grave by six of the poorest men of the parish, to each of whom I order a suit of gray coarse cloth as mourning."

The affection which Dr. Johnson bore to the memory of his wife was a pretty point in his heavy character: "March 28, 1753. I kept this day as the anniversary of my Letty's death, with prayer and tears in the morning. In the evening I prayed for her conditionally, if it were lawful." Her wedding-ring, when she became his wife, was, after her death, preserved by him as long as he lived with an affectionate care in a little round wooden box and in the inside of which he pasted a slip of paper thus inscribed by him in fair characters:

"Eheu!

Eliz. Johnson

Nupta Jul. 9deg, 1736,

Mortua, eheu!

Mart. 17deg, 1752."

Husbands can love, where friends may see nothing to admire: Mrs. Johnson has been summed up as "perpetual illness and perpetual opium."

Lord Eldon wore a mourning ring for his wife. In his will we find this: "And I direct that I may be buried in the same tomb at Kingston in which my most beloved wife is buried and as near to her remains as possible; and I desire that the ring which I wear on my finger may be put with my body into my coffin and be buried with me."

The last gift of Tom Moore's mother to him was her wedding-ring: "Have been preparing my dear mother for my leaving her, now that I see her so much better. She is quite reconciled to my going; and said this morning, 'Now, my dear Tom, don't let yourself be again alarmed about me in this manner, nor hurried away from your house and business.' She then said she must, before I left her this morning, give me her wedding-ring as her last gift; and, accordingly sending for the little trinket-box in which she kept it, she, herself, put the ring on my finger."