Ring, Algeria Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANFortnum FR.743.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANFortnum FR.743 AshLI 449

A plain copper ring with a squareish bezel incised with a personal name.

Dimensions not available.

The first and last S in the word SILVANVS is retrograde

 Algeria Late 4th/ early 5th century AD (Fortnum) Given in Rome during 1880 by J.B. de Rossi (Fortnum 1880) to Charles Drury Edward Fortnum Fortnum (1820-1899), who recorded that it had been found in Algeria. Fortnum 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).
SILVANVS COMVNALIS

Silvanus Comunalis

Believed to be Christian by Fortnum (188

Fortnum (1880) p.355 no.46; Western Art ms. Fortnum Collection FR.743

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