When in August 1900 during a cathedral excavation in Speyer Cathedral the family graves of salians opened, turned out the tomb of Emperor Henry IV. – who with his famous “went to Canossa“ went down in history – as one of the few graves in Speyer Cathedral that had survived the period since the Middle Ages almost untouched.
in the grave Henry IV was found next to a gilded one grave crown, a pectoral cross made of gilded copper sheet, a hinged reliquary cross made of silver and the remains of various textiles and shoes on his hand, a valuable gold ring with a large blue sapphire and three pearls.
The letters “ADELBERO EPS” were engraved on the ring band of the unusually elaborately designed ring. This could be an indication that the ring may have been Bishop Adelbero III. from Metz heard. The fact that Henry IV wore this ring on his finger could also indicate that Henry insisted on the secular right to appoint bishops to their posts even after his death.
Because it was precisely this right that was at stake from the year 1076 with the so-called investiture dispute between Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. Heinrich wanted the law that had been in force since the Franks, that only secular rulers could appoint clergy to their offices, to be retained. Instead, Gregory was of the opinion that only the Church had this right.
At the height of this dispute, the Pope imposed on Henry the so-called excommunication (or “Anathema", an exclusion from the community of believers or from the church), which Henry was only able to escape through his arduous journey to Canossa.
In the summer of 2019, it was therefore a very special pleasure for me to make a replica of this remarkable historical ring in almost 60 working hours, as it was created by the medieval goldsmith during the bishop's lifetime.
My replica is similar to the original and consists of approximately 18 grams of 750 yellow gold with a 12-carat star sapphire in the middle and 3 cultured pearls. The ring also features the inscription "ADELBERO EPS" which is true to the original.
All gemstone and pearl settings, as well as the underlying arcade settings, were individually made by me according to the historical model.
All individual levels were then soldered together and finally the final gemstone setting for the large sapphire was assembled.
By concentrating particularly on the later effect of each individual detail, I finally created a ring replica that, in my opinion, comes astonishingly close to the extraordinary charisma of the "Ring of the Canossa Emperor" preserved in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate (there in the "Cathedral Treasury" collection exhibition). The deformations on the original were undone in my replica - this is how the ring could have looked during the lifetime of the bishop or emperor.
