Throughout the Middle Ages, Roman gems and cameos were highly valued as intrinsically precious objects or even as possessing magical properties. During the Renaissance, large collections of gems were formed by aristocratic collectors who sought inspiration from the classical images engraved on them, and gems have been collected for similar reasons ever since. With the exception of a few dedicated antiquaries, however, collectors and scholars over the last five hundred years or so have generally ignored late antique and early Christian gems. This study presents more than 1000 gems from different collections, more than 300 of them unpublished so far. They are presented according to different genres, themes, material and place or time of production. The catalogue is completed by about 1300 illustrations.

James Ferrell has collected Greek and Roman antiquities for many years to satisfy his life-long interest in ancient history. His collection is particularly important for its focus on jewelry, engraved gems and cameos, imperial medallions, and silver plate dating from the end of the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine period (3rd-7th centuries AD). It was at this time that the Roman Empire was gradually overrun by barbarian invaders and shifted its capital eastward, to the newly founded city of Constantinople. The Ferrell Collection is particularly rich in objects made of precious metal created in royal and imperial workshops, ranging from jewelry of the Hellenistic Greek kings to medallions and brooches presented by the Roman emperors to high officials and military officers. Also included are beautifully made objects from Gothic craftsmen of the fifth and sixth centuries, including gold and silver buckles and jewelry inlaid with garnets. The catalogue continues with a superb assemblage of Byzantine jewelry and an important selection of sixth-century ecclesiastical silver vessels. Jeffrey Spier is a university associate and adjunct professor in the Classics Department at the University of Arizona. He has published extensively on Greek and Roman gems and jewelry and on early Christian and Byzantine art. His books include “Ancient Gems and Finger Rings. Catalogue of the Collections, The J. Paul Getty Museum” (1992), “Late Antique and Early Christian Gems” (2007), and “Picturing the Bible: the Earliest Christian Art” (2007).

“Late Byzantine Rings, 1204-1453” is the first study of the rings of the last years of the Byzantine Empire, the period encompassing the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261) and the restored empire under the Palaiologan rulers until the fall of Byzantium to the Turks in 1453. The rings from this period are remarkable not only for their fine design but also for the variety of inscriptions they bear, including personal names and monograms, official titles, and epigrams composed by Byzantine poets. The book illustrates and discusses nearly fifty rings from the Palaiologan period, as well as some earlier Byzantine rings, contemporary Byzantine jewelry, and related material from Bulgaria, Serbia, and the West. Many of the rings are published here for the first time.

The Yevdayev Collection of ancient rings comprises 59 superb examples from Egypt, Phoenicia, Persia, Greece, Etruria, and Rome, dating from the second millennium BC to the fourth century AD. The variety of rings is remarkable and includes not only examples in gold, silver, and copper, which are often set with gems, but also others carved from semiprecious stone, amber and shell. The rings are notable not only for their exceptional design and craftsmanship, but also for the fine engravings, which provide a wealth of images attesting to the importance of rings to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean region. Many have not been published previously.