Medieval jewelry covers roughly a thousand years, from the end of the Western Roman Empire around the 5th century to the Renaissance in the 15th. Its best-known styles include Byzantine gold and enamel, the garnet cloisonne of the early medieval peoples of northern Europe, and later Gothic brooches, rings and religious pendants. Stones were mostly polished smooth, as cabochons, and jewelry often carried religious or protective meaning. Laws in many places limited who could wear gold, silver and gems.
Byzantine enamel and gold
The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, centered on Constantinople, carried Roman goldsmithing forward and set the standard for luxury in Europe for centuries. Byzantine jewelers loved strong color. They set pearls, sapphires, emeralds, amethysts and garnets in heavy gold, often in raised settings, and used openwork gold in the Roman tradition.
Their most famous skill was cloisonne enamel. Thin gold strips (cloisons) were soldered edgewise onto a gold base to form cells, which were filled with powdered colored glass and fired until it melted. Byzantine enamelers made plaques of saints, crosses and imperial portraits in brilliant blues, greens, reds and whites. The Pala d'Oro altarpiece in St Mark's Basilica in Venice holds many Byzantine enamel plaques, some taken from Constantinople after the city was sacked in 1204.
The mosaics of Ravenna show the empress Theodora and her court in the 6th century wearing collars of pearls and gems, long pearl strands from the crown and large earrings, a picture of Byzantine court jewelry as worn.
Garnet cloisonne in early medieval Europe
In the centuries after Rome's fall in the West, the Goths, Franks, Lombards, Anglo-Saxons and other peoples developed a jewelry style built on red garnets set in gold cells. Instead of enamel, the cells held thin slices of garnet, cut flat and fitted precisely. Under each slice, a sheet of gold foil stamped with a fine grid reflected light back through the stone and made it glow.
Most of these garnets were almandine and pyrope, and analysis suggests many came from India and Sri Lanka in the 5th and 6th centuries, with European sources, including Bohemia, becoming more important later. Supplying so much cut garnet shows long-distance trade routes that survived the end of the Roman West.
Sutton Hoo
The ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England, excavated in 1939, is the richest early medieval grave found in Europe. It is usually linked to Raedwald, an East Anglian king who died in the 620s, though the identification is not certain. A large ship was dragged inland and buried with a chamber full of treasure.
The gold and garnet pieces include a great gold buckle, a purse lid, a pair of hinged shoulder clasps and sword fittings. The shoulder clasps hold hundreds of cut garnets in stepped cells, along with millefiori glass, and some cells are shaped to fit curving designs of interlaced animals. The workmanship is among the finest garnet cloisonne known. The finds are in the British Museum.
The Staffordshire Hoard, found by a metal detectorist in 2009, added thousands of fragments of Anglo-Saxon gold and garnet, mostly fittings from weapons.
Celtic and Viking ornament
In Ireland and Scotland, jewelers made large penannular and pseudo-penannular brooches. The Tara Brooch, from the early 8th century, is decorated with filigree, enamel, amber and glass, and its tiny animal and spiral patterns match those in illuminated books of the same era. Viking-age Scandinavians wore oval "tortoise" brooches in pairs, arm rings and neck rings of silver, and silver pieces were often cut up and weighed as money.
Reliquaries and religious jewelry
The church was a major patron of goldsmiths throughout the Middle Ages. Reliquaries, containers for the relics of saints, ranged from large shrines to small pendants worn on the body. A pendant reliquary might hold a fragment of bone, cloth or wood behind rock crystal, and wearers believed it offered protection.
Pectoral crosses, rosaries, devotional rings and pilgrim badges were all common. Bishops wore large rings as a sign of office, often set with a sapphire, which medieval writers associated with heaven. Lapidaries, medieval books on stones, listed beliefs about the powers of each gem, drawn from classical writers and Christian symbolism. The gemstone meanings page collects some of those traditions.
Brooches
The ring brooch, a circle of metal with a pin across it, was one of the most common medieval ornaments from the 12th to the 15th century. It fastened the neck opening of a garment. Simple versions were brass or pewter. Richer ones were gold, set with sapphires, rubies, garnets or pearls, and many bore inscriptions: names of saints, protective words, or short messages of love, often in Old French. Heart-shaped brooches and cluster brooches also appear.
Sumptuary laws
Medieval rulers tried to keep clothing and jewelry in line with rank. Sumptuary laws in England, France, the Italian city-states and elsewhere set out who could wear gold, silver, pearls, gems, fur and silk. An English statute of 1363, under Edward III, laid out rules by social class, limiting gold and gem-set ornaments to the higher ranks. These laws were hard to enforce and were passed again and again, which suggests people often ignored them. They echo the Roman Lex Oppia and the later rules in Edo Japan.
Stones and cutting
Most medieval gems were polished into rounded cabochons or left close to their natural shape. Faceting was still in its early stages. By the 14th century, diamond cutters were making point cuts (polished natural octahedrons) and early table cuts, and diamonds became more prized late in the period. The history of diamond cutting page traces how that changed.
Sapphire, ruby, spinel (often not distinguished from ruby), emerald, garnet, amethyst and pearls were the main gems. Rock crystal was carved for vessels and reliquaries. Stones were often reused from Roman objects, including ancient engraved gems set into new mounts.
Posy rings
Posy rings (from "poesy," a short poem) carry a short inscription, usually on the inside of the band. They appear in the late Middle Ages and reached their peak in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. Inscriptions were often in French in the medieval period and in English later, with mottoes such as "Love me and leave me not." Lovers and spouses exchanged them, and some served as wedding rings.
Other medieval rings include gimmel rings, two or three hoops that fit together into one, and fede rings, which show two clasped hands. The Renaissance jewelry page continues the story.
Frequently asked questions
What is garnet cloisonne?
It is a technique used by early medieval goldsmiths in which thin, flat slices of garnet are set into gold cells, usually over patterned gold foil that reflects light through the stones. The Sutton Hoo treasure has famous examples.
What was found at Sutton Hoo?
Sutton Hoo is an Anglo-Saxon ship burial in Suffolk, England, excavated in 1939. It held gold and garnet jewelry and fittings, a helmet, silverware and weapons, probably for an East Anglian king of the early 7th century.
What are posy rings?
Posy rings are bands with a short inscription, usually inside the ring. They began in the late Middle Ages and were popular as love tokens and wedding rings, especially in England in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Were gems faceted in the Middle Ages?
Mostly not. Medieval gems were usually polished as cabochons. Simple diamond cuts such as the point cut and early table cut appeared in the late Middle Ages.