Last week we had a riot of red buttons. Then I researched the history of buttons…
…and in my Google image search I came across these oddities:
They’re called fibula (plural fibulae) which, yes, is also the name of a bone in your leg. These are ancient safety pins, which were widely used to keep your toga from falling off.
Most marble statues don’t show fibulae, but if you Google enough, you’ll find some:
Obviously, what started out as a simple fastener became a decorative (expensive) status symbol. But there are so many different fibula. If you’re interested, go to https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=bow%20fibula which is the address of NUMISWIKI, The Collaborative Numismatics Project, where you’ll find all types of fibulae, such as Bow fibula (Below)….
…..as well as RING fibulae (left, Below) and OMEGA Fibulae (right, Below)…..
…and PLATE fibulae (Below) with illustrations of the spring mechanisms.
Considering that it functions as a safety pin, fibulae could be quite large (Below):
Here is just a small sample of the many, many fibulae to be found online, or (apparently) by digging anywhere in Europe. FYI, many of the fibula for sale online are actually forgeries.
Lots of animals (Above) and some very big ones (Below, right):
(Below) these are called leech fibulae, because of their shape
(Below, left) Is this illustrating the Romulus and Remus legend? (Below, right) Looks like Leda and the swan
Next week, you’ll find out what I’m doing with all these images……see you then. Stay safe. Stay sane (I know, it gets harder all the time….)
