"Jewellery has always been of central importance to all human societies, but medieval jewellery is relatively less well-known. This book draws on the important collection at the V&A to focus on the heart of the medieval period from 1100 to 1500. The jewellery worn in medieval Europe was important as an indicator of the wearer's social status and wealth, faith and superstition, allegiances and literacy. Royalty and the nobility wore gold, silver or precious gems, the costliest jewellery, while humbler ranks wore base metals, copper or pewter, sometimes set with coloured glass, in imitation of gems. The themes of love, religion and magic inspired the creation of much medieval jewellery. Gems were chosen for their colour, size and the magical or healing powers they were widely believed to bestow upon their wearers. Until late in the Middle Ages gems were not faceted, but simply polished. Sapphires, pearls, garnets and amethysts were popular, rubies the most highly prized. This richly illustrated book looks at the jewels themselves and contemporary portraits and sculpture to place the jewellery in its cultural context." --Book Jacket.

What are the origins of the imagery and designs on common jewelry and portable artwork between late antiquity and the Middle Ages? These dynamic centuries encompass the transformation of the Greco-Roman world into the nascent kingdoms and medieval states upon which most modern European nations are based. The choices of jewelry and other forms of personal expression among the lower classes in ancient times is notoriously difficult to contextualize for a number of reasons. Nonetheless, these precious articles were expressions of individual identity as well as signifiers of rites of passage. As such, they reflect not only the people who wore them, but also the social milieu and artistic trends at that moment in time. This new study assists in identifying the types, origins and routes of transmission of personal artwork, particularly finger rings, across Europe and Byzantium, an area of study that has been neglected in previous works. Some of this material represents the first time relevant research from Central and Eastern Europe has been translated and made available to the general reader in the English-speaking world.

Discussion of display through a range of artefacts and in a variety of contexts: family and lineage, social distinction and aspiration, ceremony and social bonding, and the expression of power and authority. Medieval culture was intensely visual. Although this has long been recognised by art historians and by enthusiasts for particular media, there has been little attempt to study social display as a subject in its own right. And yet, display takes us directly into the values, aspirations and, indeed, anxieties of past societies. In this illustrated volume a group of experts address a series of interrelated themes around the issue of display and do so in a waywhich avoids jargon and overly technical language. Among the themes are family and lineage, social distinction and aspiration, ceremony and social bonding, and the expression of power and authority. The media include monumental effigies, brasses, stained glass, rolls of arms, manuscripts, jewels, plate, seals and coins. Contributors: MAURICE KEEN, DAVID CROUCH, PETER COSS, CAROLINE SHENTON, ADRIAN AILES, FRÉDÉRIQUE LACHAUD, MARIAN CAMPBELL, BRIAN and MOIRA GITTOS, NIGEL SAUL, FIONN PILBROW, CAROLINE BARRON and JOHN WATTS.