CLEMENT VII
(November 19, 1523 – September 25, 1534)
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44 mm
Obv.:
CLEMENS•VII•PONT• MAX•
MDXXV•AN•II
Bust of the pope, r., wearing zucchetto and cope.
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Rev.:
RESERAVIT•ET•CLAVSIT•ANN(o)•IVB(ilei)
The ceremony of the walling up of the Holy Door in the Vatican Basilica at the end of the Jubilee Year 1525.
Mazio, 46.
Spink, 467.
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Æ
32 mm
Obv.:
CLEM • VII • PONT • MAX
Bust of the pope, r., wearing zucchetto and cope.
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Rev.:
EGO•SVM•IOSEPH•
FRATER
•VESTER
Joseph reveals himself to his brothers
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Mazio, 47.
Spink, 469-473.
a cast
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The obverse shows the results of a casting accident involving the master medal: a spill of molten metal at the base of the bust on the left (original decoration can be seen beneath the spill), and a few droplets in the right field and in the inscription.
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Æ
Obv.:
CLEMENS . VII . PONTIF . MAX .
Bust of the pope, r., wearing zucchetto and cope.
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Rev.:
POST . MULTA . PLVRIMA . RESTANT .
Draped bearded figure in front of architectural ruins.
[Sack of Rome, 1527 ?]
Spink, —.
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AV
Obv.:
CLEMENS • VII • PONT • MAX • AN • XI • M •D•XXXIIII
Bust of the pope, l., wearing zucchetto and cope.
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Rev.:
VT | BIBAT | POPVLVS
Moses strikes the rock with his staff. Water pours forth so that the people might drink. (Exodus 17. 6)
Sculptor: Benvenuto Cellini
Spink, 476-477.
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"Not many days had passed before, my medal being finished, I stamped it in gold, silver and copper. After I had shown it to Messer Piero, he immediately introduced me to the Pope. It was on a day in April [1534]... we talked a little on this subject: he praised my medals, and said they gave him the greatest satisfaction, but that he should like another reverse made according to a fancy of his own, if it were possible to stamp them with two different patterns. I said that it was possible to do so. Then His Holiness commissioned me to design the story of Moses when he strikes the rock and water issues from it, with this motto: Ut bibat populus. At last he added, "Go, Benvenuto: you will not have finished it before I have provided for your fortune." ... so I devoted myself entirely to working out this reverse with the Moses on it."
Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography 163-165.
January 17, 2010 12:02 PM
John Paul Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu
