(Vol. vii., p. 595.)
With regard to your correspondent MR. G. BRINDLEY ACKWORTH's Query
respecting _Raffaelle's Sposalizio_, I am induced to think that the
_custode_ at the church of the Santa Croce at Florence was right as to his
information. In the copy which I have of the "Ordo ad faciendum Sponsalia,"
_according to the ancient use of Salisbury_, the ring is undoubtedly to be
placed on the bride's _right_ hand. Wheatly indeed says, that "when the man
espouses his wife with it (_i.e._ the ring), he is to put it _upon the
fourth finger of her_ left _hand_;" and then refers, for _the reason_ of
this, to the rubric of _Salisbury Manual_, which speaks of the vein going
from this finger directly to the heart.
Now, what are the precise words of this rubric? After giving directions for
the benediction of the ring, provided it has not previously been blessed,
the rubric goes on thus:
"Si autem antea fuerit annulus ille benedictus tunc statim postquam vir
posuerit annulum super librum, accipiens sacerdos annulum tradat ipsum
viro: quem vir accipiat manu sua dextera cum tribus principalioribus
digitis, et manu sua sinistra tenens dexteram sponsae docente sacerdote
dicat."
The man is to receive the ring from the priest with the three principal
fingers of the right hand; and then, holding the _right hand_ of the bride
with his own left hand, he shall say, "With this ring," &c. He is then to
place the ring on her thumb, saying, "In nomine Patris;" then on her second
finger, saying "et Filii;" then on the third finger, saying "et Spiritus
Sancti;" then on the fourth finger, saying "Amen;" and there he is to leave
it. There is not a word said about the bride's _left_ hand, the _right_ is
alone mentioned; and why should the man hold her _right_ hand with his
_left_, but that with his _right_ hand he may the more easily place the
ring, _first_ on the _thumb_, then on the other fingers of her _right_
hand, until it arrives at its ideal destination?
While I am upon this subject, allow me to point out another singular
direction given in a rubric in this same "Ordo ad faciendum Sponsalia."
When the woman is, as we term it, given away, if she be a spinster, she is
to have her hand _uncovered_; if a widow, _covered_: the words are--
"Deinde detur femina a patre suo, vel ab amicis ejus: quod si _puella_
sit, _discoopertam_ habeat _manum_, si _vidua_, _tectam_."
There is no reason given for this distinction, nor do I ever remember to
have seen it noticed.