Posy rings, France, 1500-1530. Gold, engraved. Given by Dame Joan Evans. M.221-1962. Victoria & Albert Museum, London © V&A Images.
Gold posy ring, inscribed in Roman capitals in French, 'UNG TEMPS VIANDRA' separated by a flower and scrolling foliage in relief around the outer hoop and '+MON DESIR ME VAILLE' separated by stars engraved on the inner hoop. The outer hoop may originally have been enamelled.
Posy rings, the name deriving from poesy ('poetry'), are rings with inscriptions that express affection, friendship and love. Rhyming or cryptic inscriptions were fashionable from around 1200-1500, and were written in Latin but more commonly in French, the language of courtly love. Both these languages were spoken and understood fairly widely by the elite in medieval Europe. The repetition of particular inscriptions suggest that goldsmiths had reference books of stock phrases; the more unusual inscriptions perhaps indicate a client's individual request.
The small size of this example suggests it was owned by a woman.
The circular hoop could be engraved both inside and out; until around 1350 the style of lettering took the form of the rounded capitals, known as Lombardic script, and from that date until after 1500 lettering was in the spiky script known as Gothic.