Social Lives of Medieval Rings

Jitske Jasperse is Ramón y Cajal Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council, Madrid. She has written two books, including Medieval Women, Material Culture, and Power (2020) and edited a special issue of Das Mittelalter. Her articles have appeared widely.

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceIntroduction. "Some Reflections on the Social Lives of Rings," by Jitske JasperseChapter 1. "Haptic Histories: The Social Life of Rings in French Late Medieval Inventories and Testaments," by Mariah Proctor-TiffanyChapter 2. "Archaeological Evidence of Later Medieval and Early Modern Finger-Rings in Britain: Rings, Experiences, and Emotions," by Eleanor R. StandleyChapter 3. "Changing Hands: On the Uses, Meaning, and Circulation of Rings Amongst the Iberian Nobility from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Century," by Inés Calderón MedinaChapter 4. "A Sign of Women’s Power: Signet Rings in Medieval Rus," by Christian RaffenspergerChapter 5. "The Social Use of Rings Among the Muslims of al-Andalus," by Ana LabartaChapter 6. "As a Seal or a Sign: Bishops’ Rings and their Metaphors," by Juliette CalvarinChapter 7. "Authenticating the Rings of the 'Nine Holy Bishops': Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil, from Modern to Medieval Contexts," by Therese MartinChapter 8. “'Certainly a Very Fine Object': Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Collectors of Jewellery and Wealth in the Twentieth Century," by Elizabeth McCordEpilogue. "Inside the Vitrine: Rings in Museums Today," by Sandra Hindman

Although historic rings frequently served as a social currency and as personal expressions of status, research on these functions is often complicated by an absence of evidence identifying owners and makers as well as stylistic continuities across time and space. Yet recent scholarship has emphasised the potential of these precious objects to illuminate aspects of female agency, dynastic self-fashioning, global material networks and affective expression. This volume builds on and extends that scholarship, setting out to deepen our understanding of how, as intimate sartorial accessories and signs of authority, rings could operate as portable instruments of devotion, allegiance and power.[T]he collection as a whole is rich and stimulating. Jasperse and her contributors have assembled a treasure-trove of case-studies that whet the appetite for further consideration. It illuminates not only the multifaceted meanings of these diminutive objects but also the complex interplay between material culture, identity and meaning-making in the medieval world.