PAS Finds

PAS finds (w/e 18/11/22) – Amor Vincit Omnia

PAS finds (w/e 18/11/22) – Amor Vincit Omnia

My selection of the detecting finds recorded at the PAS in the week ended 18 November 2022.

Featured Find

Amor Vincit Omnia brooch

Photo: Surrey County Council
Object type: Brooch
Period: Medieval
Primary material: Copper alloy
Date found: 17/11/2022
Location: Winchester

A medieval gilded copper-alloy brooch which has been dated to the latter part of the 13th or 14th century. In Lombardic script, the inscription reads AMOR VINCIT O[MNI]A.

gold brooch
PAS ESS-1DBFC4.
Photo: Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service CC By SA2.0

A number of brooches of this style with similar inscriptions have been recorded at the PAS. The are made of copper-alloy, silver or, as in the example shown here, gold.

Amor Vincit Omnia

Amor Vincit Omnia is one of the most well known Latin phrases. It is an altered form of a line from Virgil’s Bucolica or Eclogae, published in 37 BC. The full line, with the words in a different order, reads “Omnia vincit amor: et nos cedamus amori“, “Love conquers all; let us, too, yield to love!”. “Amor Vincit Omnia” is certainly the the more well known version now. Virgil needed to put the word “Omnia” first to have a longer vowel sound at the start of the sentence to give the correct meter to his poem.

The phrase was spoken by a lovesick character called Gallus who is dying of a broken heart.

Prioress in Canterbury’s Tales

Chaucer wrote Canterbury Tales between 1387 and 1400 in Middle English. One of the pilgrims is a Prioress who is named as Madame Eglantine. She is described in The General Prologue:

Prioress from Canterbury tales
The Prioress’s Tale
Painting by Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1869-98

Of smal coral aboute hir arm she bar

A peire of bedes, gauded al with grene,

An theron heng a brooch of gold ful sheene,

On which ther was first write a crowned A,

And after Amor vincit omnia.

The brooch is chosen by Chaucer as it relates to courtly rather than God’s love. Along with her fancy rosary, love of lap dogs and her fake French accent it paints a picture of a social climber, which contrasts with the simple piety of her tale.

The brooch and Canterbury tales are from the same period. It could be that Chaucer used a piece of jewellery which was already familiar for his readers or alternatively, it was Chaucer who popularised this inscription on a brooch.

Selection of other finds

Photo: The Portable Antiquities Scheme CC By SA2.0

Threepence “Ormonde Money” of Charles I

These coins aren’t particularly rare in themselves but are extremely rare as a UK detecting find. It has been designated a Find of Note of National Importance.
Photo: Surrey County Council CC By SA2.0

Denarius of Otho

A coin of Otho who reigned for 3 months in AD 69 during the Year of the Four Emperors. This is a denarius variant of an aureus. The first known examples were thought to possibly be copies but more recent finds indicate the type exists as a denarius. It is a Find of Note.
Photo: The Portable Antiquities Scheme CC By SA2.0

Seal matrix of two angels holding a crown

A silver seal matrix dated to 1650-1700. It depicts two winged figures holding up a crown with wheat in their other hands. A few matrices with similar imagery are on the PAS. It is being considered for Treasure.
Photo: North Lincolnshire Museum CC By SA2.0

Heart shaped silver thimble

The outside looks like a thimble but as the PAS record says “It is difficult to see how this might have been securely attached to a finger-sized sleeve to function as a thimble cap“. The suggested date is 1600-1700 and it is going through the Treasure process.
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