DOI issue:
Faculty of archeology, history and letters
DOI article:Hill, George Francis: The Roman medallists of the Renaissance to the time of Leo X
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70028#0074
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The British School at Rome.
above be safely assigned to Giancristoforo. The Tutela medal especially
is a very pleasing example of his art as a die-engraver.
The medal inscribed CIVITA VECHIA is the subject of some inter-
esting remarks by Paris de Grassis.1 Under the year 1508 he describes
how the Pope proceeded to the spot on the second Sunday in Advent
and deposited about ’300 medals in a vase in the foundations, in the
cruciform bed of cement which also received the inscribed foundation-
stone. Half the medals were made of ‘ auricalcum, quod brongium
appellatur,’ and half ' ex ere albo nescio cuius misture ’ (presumably
bronze and brass respectively, although auricalcum should strictly mean
the latter alloy), about the size of the double giulio (i.e., about 30 mm.
in diameter). He describes the types and inscriptions of the medals,
and adds that the inscription CI VITAS VECCHI A~ puzzled him, ‘cum
vecchia non sit vocabulum latinum, tamen sic fuit in aliquibus.’ Now
no recorded existing specimens read CIVITAS ; the inscription is always
CIVITA VECHIA, to which no objection could be taken. What is more,
the letters of this inscription have evidently been separately inserted in
the die by means of an alphabet of punches, according to the method
described by Cellini. This fact, as well as the existence of specimens in
which the inscription is lacking altogether (Pl. IX. 4), prompts me to
suggest that, possibly in consequence of the representations of Paris de
Grassis, some correction was made in the reverse of this medal, so far as
concerns the specimens which have come down to us.
There is at least one other medal2 referring to the work of Julius
as builder ; it commemorates the laying out of the Belvedere. The com-
position of the portrait on the obverse and the style of the lettering are
so much akin to those of the Peace medal, that, in spite of a greater
coarseness in execution, there should be little hesitation in accepting it
as the work of Giancristoforo (Pl. VIII. 6). Above a view of the palace
and terraces (with the word VATICANVS M(ons) below) are the words
VIA • IVL • HI • ADIT • LON • M • ALTI • L • XX • P •, giving appa-
rently the measurement of the approaches from the Belvedere to the
Va tican.
1 Quoted by Bonanni, i. p. 157. Cp. B.M. Add. MS. 8441, fol. 249.
2 Arm. ii. no, 45 ; Tris., Pl. IV. 3 ; E. Rodocanachi, Rome au temps de Jules II. et
de Lion X., Pl. X.
3 The abbreviations presumably mean Via lulia trium adituum longitudinis mille
altitudinis septuaginta pedum. Cp. Bonanni, Num. Pont., i. p. 159.
The British School at Rome.
above be safely assigned to Giancristoforo. The Tutela medal especially
is a very pleasing example of his art as a die-engraver.
The medal inscribed CIVITA VECHIA is the subject of some inter-
esting remarks by Paris de Grassis.1 Under the year 1508 he describes
how the Pope proceeded to the spot on the second Sunday in Advent
and deposited about ’300 medals in a vase in the foundations, in the
cruciform bed of cement which also received the inscribed foundation-
stone. Half the medals were made of ‘ auricalcum, quod brongium
appellatur,’ and half ' ex ere albo nescio cuius misture ’ (presumably
bronze and brass respectively, although auricalcum should strictly mean
the latter alloy), about the size of the double giulio (i.e., about 30 mm.
in diameter). He describes the types and inscriptions of the medals,
and adds that the inscription CI VITAS VECCHI A~ puzzled him, ‘cum
vecchia non sit vocabulum latinum, tamen sic fuit in aliquibus.’ Now
no recorded existing specimens read CIVITAS ; the inscription is always
CIVITA VECHIA, to which no objection could be taken. What is more,
the letters of this inscription have evidently been separately inserted in
the die by means of an alphabet of punches, according to the method
described by Cellini. This fact, as well as the existence of specimens in
which the inscription is lacking altogether (Pl. IX. 4), prompts me to
suggest that, possibly in consequence of the representations of Paris de
Grassis, some correction was made in the reverse of this medal, so far as
concerns the specimens which have come down to us.
There is at least one other medal2 referring to the work of Julius
as builder ; it commemorates the laying out of the Belvedere. The com-
position of the portrait on the obverse and the style of the lettering are
so much akin to those of the Peace medal, that, in spite of a greater
coarseness in execution, there should be little hesitation in accepting it
as the work of Giancristoforo (Pl. VIII. 6). Above a view of the palace
and terraces (with the word VATICANVS M(ons) below) are the words
VIA • IVL • HI • ADIT • LON • M • ALTI • L • XX • P •, giving appa-
rently the measurement of the approaches from the Belvedere to the
Va tican.
1 Quoted by Bonanni, i. p. 157. Cp. B.M. Add. MS. 8441, fol. 249.
2 Arm. ii. no, 45 ; Tris., Pl. IV. 3 ; E. Rodocanachi, Rome au temps de Jules II. et
de Lion X., Pl. X.
3 The abbreviations presumably mean Via lulia trium adituum longitudinis mille
altitudinis septuaginta pedum. Cp. Bonanni, Num. Pont., i. p. 159.