Well… not exactly… but obliqueness is so much more amusing at
times… wouldn’t you agree? So… to narrow this down a bit. Let us
begin with Latin. The authoritative articles on jewelry state that
the Latin word for twins is gemelli… and this is true. But it is
not an easy truth for much on line documentation has no translation
into Latin for the word Twins. Do a reverse however… and you can
find gemelli… but only after some serious hunting.
Which brings us to Fede… the supposed Italian word for friendship
… unless of course you happen to look in an Italian/English
dictionary where you will find that Fede in Italian means trust and
faith and wedding ring. Nothing about friendship. I know I know.
Quibble quibble quibble.
Which brings us to this sad actuality… if you want truth in
facts… ask the Tidbits man… for he spends two to seven
micro-seconds researching his topics which is clearly two to seven
micro-seconds more than the other researchers spend. I ain’t
mentioning no names so don’t ask.
Phew. Glad we got that out of the way. And now… for the great
segue of all time… we switch to the Renaissance. Not an easy switch
by any means… but when empowered by the powers of Shazamus
Benjamanus…
It was during the Renaissance that jewelers began creating a new
style of wedding band called the Gimmel (from the Latin Gemelli) Fede
(from the Italian Fede) Ring. Gimmel Fede Ring when not using
parentheses.
It was a clever little thing consisting of two or three interlocking
bands with hands on the ends of the north side and a pivot on the
south side so that the bands could swivel open and closed. When
closed… the “twin” hands closed in “friendship”. As a little aside
this innovation was introduced around the very same time the puritans
tried to abolish the tradition of the wedding ring altogether. They
did not succeed. I have a suspicion extremists never do in the long
run.
These two rings were assembled by the local jeweler (Tylerus Adamus
was his name I believe) at the time the couple wed. Prior to that…
the groom-to-be and the bride-to-be each wore a single half of the
double-banded ring. Once assembled and placed on the bride’s
finger… the union was sealed and guaranteed never to be broken.
Ah… the idealism of days of yore. Or maybe we’re talking of the
idealism of days of present in thinking there was idealism in days of
yore. I don’t know. Don’t ask. Philosophy makes me nuts.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Current Tidbits… and you will get to view a Gimmel Fede Ring with
hands at the ready to go aclasp.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark