Papal Medal Preferences

harasha

A recent acquisition of an old worn medal (love those worn religious medals) of Innocent XI motivated me to reconsider my quiescent interest in papal medals.
I am considering concentrating on one pope. First, I decided on a well documented period, the Baroque. Then I considered the longest reigning popes; a tie between Urban VIII and Clement XI. I figured that these two pontiffs would have the greatest variety of medals, because of that length of time. So, which one to choose? Well, I did some basic research and it seems that Clement XI was the sort of pontiff of which the Church can be proud; Urban VIII, not so much.

All the above considered, do the Forum members who know of such things have any suggestions? Otherwise, Clement XI postings may be in my future.

I will attempt to post my worn Innocent XI this weekend.

STLNATS

What references do you have? Roma Resurgens is a nice overview of the Baroque, but of course is not complete. The Mazio pictorial catalogue and the Spink/Lincoln reprint are also good, but very basic references. Also, you may know that most material of this period with any grade is likely to be a restrike. The new CNORP references by Modesti help sort these out, but are very expensive and are in Italian.

For what its worth, I've collected the entire series (from Martin V up) for while and am increasing interested in later 20th century medals, from John 23rd thru the current pope. Paul VI and John Paul II have an amazing diversity of medals, both in terms of subject and style. And many are not too expensive, especially those of Paul. Many silvers can be had for a modest premium to melt. DuLuca and Sarro & Sadow provide coverage thru Paul VI with DeLuca being the more complete. Unfortunately there's not a good reference that I've come across after Paul VI.

Just my 2 baiocchi...

edited to add: if the choice is between Urban and Clement, I'd vote for the latter. Both have interesting reverse types, but the style, artwork of Clement's medals seem more appealing to me.

harasha

I am aware of restrikes. At what point in time, if this makes any sense, did contemporaneous strikes make restrikes unnecessary?

Added: Actually, I just did a search and noted you provided a comprehensive discussion in an earlier thread. Thank you in retrospect!

STLNATS

Glad to see the old threads can still be helpful sometimes.

BTW, I posted a couple of Pathe videos a few months ago. One of these seemed to show a very early (17 or 18th century) medal being struck on a screw press. I think these were from the 1940s and wonder if they don't still bang out an example or two occasionally. Roma Resurgens has a great discussion of the practice of restrikes and how the "original" medals were used. RR shows up on ebay from time to time and, being fairly cheap, is a gotta buy for anyone contemplating this area.

Good luck and look forward to seeing your Innocent piece.

Iosephus

Ah, the Baroque, a great time period to collect for papal medals. I'm personally focusing on the Renaissance and Baroque eras (~1455 - 1740), so I like where your head is at. As STLNATS mentioned, Roma Resurgens is a great reference for the time period (and the best part is it's in English!). If you're looking for further references, the CNORP series by Modesti that were mentioned are also good, though they end at 1621, so a bit before the time period you're interested. Another series of three books was produced by Walter Miselli cataloging all of the medals from 1605 to 1730, so these might be good to acquire. However, they are in Italian and rather expensive (~ $200 each).

With regards to choosing a single pope, I respectfully disagree with the choice of Clement XI and personally find the medals of Urban VIII more interesting (though I am naturally drawn to older items). Also, there are significantly more medals (and variations) to collect. For Urban, the Mazio restrikes number 40 and Miselli lists 232 medals (though many are later mules). For Clement, the Mazio restrikes number 32 and Miselli lists 136 medals.

However, if I may, I would also suggest looking at the medals of Alexander VII. He didn't reign as long, but was himself personally very interested in medals and thus had a strong output (there are 30 Mazio restrikes and Miselli lists 155 medals). Also, some of his medals were designed by the great Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and there are several large and stunning cast medals by Gioacchino Francesco Travani. If I had to choose just one single pope to collect, Alexander VII would be it.

In any case, you can't go wrong with any choice in the Baroque, and I eagerly await seeing your future purchases.