Christian ring, Rome Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANFortnum FR.737.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANFortnum FR.737 AshLI 444

A plain bronze ring consisting of a seven-sided hoop, with retrograde letters, some of which were already hardly legible to Fortnum in 1880.

Dimensions not available

Rome 4th century AD (Fortnum) Bought in Rome in 1880 by Charles Drury Edward Fortnum Fortnum (1820-1899), who was an art historian and collector, with particular interest in collecting sculpture, bronzes, maiolica, and rings from Renaissance Italy. He published catalogues of maiolica and bronzes in the South Kensington Museum (later, the Victoria and Albert Museum). Fortnum was instrumental in the history of the development of the Ashmolean Museum, making a substantial donation to allow the collections at the University Galleries on Beaumont Street to come to fruition, and also both lending and subsequently donating a large part of his collection to the museum (Wilson 2004). This item was given to the Ashmolean in Nov. 1889 (Western Art ms. Fortnum Collection
VENANTI VIVAS IN DEO CVN SERCIIV

Venantius, may you live in God with Ser[---]

SERGIOLA (tentatively suggested by Fortnum 1880); CVN for CVM

The formula indicates its Christian context. Fortnum (1880) suggests it may have been a wedding ring.

Fortnum (1880) p.354 no.40, with fig.; Western Art ms. Fortnum Collection, Finger Rings no.737

Fortnum C.D.E. 1880 Additional notes on finger rings and on some engraved gems of the early Christian period Archaeological Journal 37 351-63 Wilson T. 2004 Fortnum, Charles Drury Edward (1820–1899) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford Oxford University Press, online edition http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9951, accessed 14 March 2017