Posy rings, so called from the "poesy" or rhyme engraved on them, were specially common in the same centuries. The name "posy ring" does not occur earlier than the i6th century. A posy ring inscribed with "Love me and leave me not" is men tioned by Shakespeare (Mer. of Ven., act v. sc. r). The cus tom of inscribing rings with mottoes or words of good omen dates from a very early time. Greek and Roman rings exist with words such as ZHCAIC, XAIPE, KAAH, or votis meis' Claudia vivas. In the middle ages many rings were inscribed with words of cabalistic power, such as anam zapta, or Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, the supposed names of the Magi.
In the 17th century memorial rings with a name and date of death were frequently made of very elaborate form, enamelled in black and white; a not unusual design was two skeletons bent along the hoop, and holding a coffin which formed the bezel.
Cramp rings were much worn during the middle ages as a preservative against cramp. They derived their virtue from being blessed by the king ; a special form of service was used for this, and a large number of rings were consecrated at one time, usually when the sovereign touched patients for the king's evil.
Decade rings were not uncommon, especially in the i5th cen tury; these were so called from their having ten knobs along the hoop of the ring, and were used, after the manner of rosaries, to say nine ayes and a paternoster.
In the 15th and i6th centuries signet rings engraved with a badge or trademark were much used by merchants and others; these were not only used to seals, but the ring itself was often sent by a trusty bearer as the proof of the genuineness of a bill of demand. At the same time private gentlemen used mas sive rings wholly of gold with their initials cut on the bezel, and a graceful knot of flowers twining round the letters. Other fine gold
rings of this period have coats of arms or crests with graceful lambrequins.
Poison rings with a hollow bezel were used in classical times; as, for example, that by which Hannibal killed himself, and the poison ring of Demosthenes. Pliny records that, after Crassus had stolen the gold treasure from under the throne of Capitoline Jupiter, the guardian of the shrine, to escape torture, "broke the gem of his ring in his mouth and died immediately." The me diaeval anello della morte, supposed to be a Venetian invention, was actually used as an easy method of murder. Among the elabo rate ornaments of the bezel a hollow point made to work with a spring was concealed ; it communicated with a receptacle for poison in a cavity behind, in such a way that the murderer could give the fatal scratch while shaking hands with his enemy. This device was probably suggested by the poison fang of a snake. (See also SEALS ; JEWELLERY; GEMS.) De Annulis antiquis (Udine, 1645) ; Kirch mann, De Annulis (Schleswig, 1657) ; King, Antique Gems and Rings (1872) ; F. H. Marshall, Catalogue of Finger Rings, Greek, Roman and Etruscan in the British Museum (1907) ; O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of Finger Rings, Early Christian, Byzantine, Teutonic, Mediaeval and later in the British Museum (1912) ; G. F. Kunz, Rings (Philadelphia, 1917) ; Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'archeologie chritienne, s.v. "Anneaux"; articles of Waterton in Archaeologia and Archaeological Journal.