The
earliest Jewish wedding-rings are said to have been plain golden
circlets, without setting, indeed a silver substitute or even one of a
cheaper metal was not forbidden. Pearls, favorite gems with the Jews,
were sometimes used for settings at a later period. The purely
ceremonial or symbolic significance of the Jewish wedding ring in early
times is exemphfied in its great size, the major part of these rings
being much too large for wear. Sometimes, at the wedding feast, rings
of this type were used as holders of myrtle-branches. The circlet
surmounted with the temple figure was occasionally formed of two
cherubim.39
A
ring supposed to have been the wedding ring of the Roman Tribune, Cola
di Rienzi (ca. 1313-1354), is of silver, with an octagonal bezel; the
hoop bears the names: " Catarina " and " Nicola," those of Rienzi and
of Catarina di Raselli, his bride. The letters have been placed in
sharp relief by cutting away the background and filling it up with
niello. Between the names are two stars. As Rienzi chose a star as his
emblem on the coins he struck during his brief rule in Rome, this
device coupled with the names makes the attribution of the ring not
without some good foundation.40 This ring was bought by Mr.
Waterton in Rome for a trifling sum. It had been pledged in a Monte di
Pietà, and was disposed of at one of the periodical clearing sales.
In
the fifteenth century the betrothal ceremony was usually performed in
the presence of a notary public, not of a priest, and this continued to
be the usage until
39 Jewish Encyclopaedia, vol. x, art. Rings by Albert Wolf, of Dresden, Saxony.
40 "
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art at the South
Kensington Museum, June, 1862," section 32, " Rings," by Edmund
Waterton, pp. 630, 631.
