Gold ring, the square bezel inscribed PEREGRINE VIVAS, Italy, Early Christian, 5th century

Gold ring, the square bezel inscribed PEREGRINE VIVAS

Presented by Art Fund

Bought from the Guilhou Collection sale at Sotheby's, 1937.

A parallel for this ring can be found at The Vyne, Hampshire. The Vyne ring, which was found in a field near Silchester in 1785, also has a square bezel which is engraved with a portrait head. The ring from the Vyne was said to have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien in 'The Lord of the Rings'.

The inscription 'VIVAS' has been found on other Roman rings. The bezel of a silver ring was recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 2013, found in Swaffham, Norfolk. It features a profile male head with the retrograde inscription 'Antoni Vivas in Deo' and was probably used as a personal signet. A ring found in 1823 in Brancaster, Norfolk is engraved with two profile heads facing and 'Vivas in deo'. Drury Fortnum describes a bronze ring with a square bezel inscribed 'Vivas in deo' in the Vatican collection, which had been found in the Catacombs, in Rome. There is a group of rings in the British Museum including a bronze ring with a rectangular bezel inscribed VIVAS IN DIO on two lines, reversed (Dalton, O.M., Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Early Christian, Byzantine, Teutonic, Medieval and Later in the British Museum, London, 1912, p. 3, cat. 8) and others with variations on 'VIVAS' or 'VIBAS'. The Christian association is strengthened by a bronze ring with a Chi-Rho and the inscription 'ARBORI VIBAS IN CRISTO'.

Edmund Waterton discussed these rings in his 'Dactyliotheca Watertoniana', p 88: "Other Christian rings have acclamations or good wishes upon them, similar to those which are found on Roman Pagan rings, such as VIVAS IN DEO and the like. A ring in the Kircherian Museum has SPES IN DEO and Ficorini gives another with DEUSDEDIT VIVAS IN DEO." There are two other Waterton rings with 'VIVAS' inscriptions: museum numbers 580-1871 (agate cameo engraved 'VIBAS LUXURI HOMO BONE' and 581-1871 (agate cameo engraved 'FABIANA VIVAS') although neither of these is overtly Christian. These rings are discussed in 'Late Antique and early Christian gems' (Jeffrey Spiers, Weisbaden, 2007, pp. 135-9).

The inscription on the bezel of this ring 'PEREGRINE VIVAS' indicates that this ring is part of a group of Roman objects with similar inscriptions. 'Vivas in deo' or simply 'Vivas' ('Live in God' or 'May you live in God') was a common inscription on Roman objects. The inscription 'Vivas', sometimes added to a first name, was used on pagan objects but was also associated with other Christian symbols such as the chi-rho monogram (the first letters of Christ in Greek), palm branches or the Lamb of God and may therefore be a Christian inscription. If so, the use of a overtly Christian phrase on a finger ring suggests that the wearer wanted their religious beliefs to be clearly identifiable and that Christianity, though still a minority religion, was now acceptable. The same inscription is found on the 'Vyne ring', a Roman ring belonging to a man named Silvianus which is believed to have inspired the author J.R.R. Tolkien to write 'The Lord of the Rings'; on a ring found in a Roman tomb in the Catacombs, Rome and on spoons in the Hoxne hoard and the Mildenhall Treasure (both in the British Museum).

The inscription on a Christian cemetery stone recorded in Padua in 1687 reads 'HILARI VIVAS IN DEO' with the chi-rho monogram and a palm brach followed by 'HERACLIE COMPARI SUAE BENEME RENTI FECIT QUE VIXIT ANIS XXI IN PACE LIBERI VIVAS IN ' followed by the chi-rho. This inscription has been interpreted to refer to three people, Hilarius, Liberius and Heraclia.

M.174-1937