A Seal of the Crossbowmenof France
So far, the facts fail to account for the initials
R L C that appear in the field of the seal, unless
the latter two stand for the maternal inheritance
of the master, La Fert6-Chauderon,which appears
unlikely.
In his delightful sketch of the history of the
French seal, Lecoy de la Marche estimated at
about one thousand the number of matricesextant
in that country. When the universality of the
sigillographic function is recalled in the case of
mediaevalFrance, and when it is rememberedthat
this number includes post-medieval times, such
NOTES ON ITALIAN MEDALS-VIII
ckhBY G. F. HILL a
I-THREE PEN-STUDIES BY SPERANDIO
OF MANTUA.
HE two drawings, which, by
the courtesy of their owners,
Mr. Henry Oppenheimerand
M. Walter Gay, I am allowed
to reproduce here,2 once
formed part of the same
sheet of paper." They are
both evidently by the same
hand-not that of a great master of drawing,
by any means, but undoubtedly datingfrom the last
quarter of the fifteenth century. The traditional
attribution to Pisanello cannot be regarded
seriously; but the scale and pose of the drawings
suggest that they may be by some other medallist.
On seeing the fragment with the two confronted
busts (P1. I, 2) in Mr. Oppenheimer'scollection, I
was at once struck with the general resemblanceof
the bust of the old man on the left to some of the
portraitsby Sperandio. Further search narrowed
the field to the portrait of Antonio Sarzanella
de' Manfredi,whose medal by Sperandio is repro-
duced for comparison in P1. I, 1.4 The chief
difference between the portraits is in the nose,
which on the medal is longer than in the drawing.
The wart on the cheek is also not indicated in the
drawing. The ear and the loose skin about the
cheek and neck are treated in very much the same
fashion in both portraits. Many persons to whom
the two have been shown have not hesitated to re-
I For the previous articles see BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, Vol ix,
p. 408 (September, 19o6) ; Vol. x, p. 384 (March, 1907) ; Vol. xii,
p. 141 (December, 1907); Vol, xiii, p. 274 (August, 1908);
Vol. xiv, p. 2to (January, 90o9); Vol. xv, pp. 31, 94 (April and
May, Igog).
2 P1. , Nos. 2 and 4. Drawn with the pen in bistre on coarse
brownish-white paper.
'How they fitted to each other I am unable to say; they
have probably been trimmed since the sheet was cut up. There
are remains of writing, both on the front and back of M. Gay's
fragment, which are too slight to afford any information.
4Cp. Armand I, 74, 41. The specimen illustrated is at
Berlin; the casts of this and of the medal of Casali are due to
the kindness of Dr. K. Regling.
24
a survival can only be accounted infinitesimal.
In the present instance, the non-existence of any
impression from a crossbowmen's office-seal in
the catalogue of the ten thousand examples at the
Archives Nationales of France, is a circumstance
that greatlyenhances the matrix'simportancefrom
historical and sigillographic standpoints. From
that of armory,as furnishinga probablyunrecorded
version of the insignia of the fourteenth imaftre
des arbalitriers, the facts speak for themselves.
The seal is the property of Mr. W. H. Hammond,
of Sevenoaks.
gard them as representingthe same man. On this
point, however, I do not insist, because it is not
essential to the attribution of the drawings to
Sperandio, although it might serve as a corrobora-
tive argument. In M. Walter Gay's drawing
(Pl. I, 4) we have a sketch which does not
seem to be so obviously a study for a medal.
And yet, on comparison with the reverses of
some of Sperandio's medals, we are struck with
certain points of resemblance which indicate
that it is, after all, such a study. There is a
strong similarity in arrangement of dress and in
pose (the position of the face alone being varied)
to the figure on the reverse of the medal of
Sarzanellahimself; but a still better parallel is to
be found in the figure on the reverse of the medal
of Catelano Casali, illustrated from the Berlin
specimen in P1. I, 3. The curious disposition of
the hair is the same in both drawing and medal.
And anyone who turns over the plates of Heiss's
volume on Sperandio will find other points of
contact between the drawing and the medals.
Is it then too rash to suggest that we have in
these little studies the work of Sperandio ? They
are by no means drawings of the first rank; but
then Sperandio, although he occasionally gives
evidence of a good deal of power, is no longer
placed so high among medallists as he used to be.
His qualities, good and bad, are admirably
summarized by M. de Foville in the introduction
to his study of the artist, of which the first
chapter (in 'Le Mus6e' for July) reaches me
as I am correcting the proofs of this article.
These two drawings of men display, if not
strength, at least a lively realism and some sense of
character. Until some drawings are discovered
which show a still closer approach to his medals,
these may, I think, be regarded as having a good
claim to be from his hand. The fact that they be-
tray a certain affinity with contemporaryFerrarese
work is all in favour of the attribution, since
Sperandio, besides the time which he spent in
Ferraraduring his youth, also worked there from

1463 to 1477. In 1477-1478 he was at Faenza,
where, among other things, he seems to have
made a terra-cotta relief of the Annunciation,
identified by Venturi as the work of Sperandio,
in ' L'Arte,' 1898, p. 374. The figure of the Virgin
in this relief bears some resemblance to the girl in
M. Gay's drawing. Signor Venturi, indeed, in
attributing the terra-cottato Sperandio, compared
the Virgin with the figures on the reverses of those
very medals of Sarzanellaand Casali which I have
adduced to support the attribution of the drawing
to Sperandio. The sketches, however, were
probably made rather at Bologna than during the
short stay at Faenza. Catelano Casali was a
Bolognese; his medal was made in or after 1490,
in which year he was created protonotary.
Sarzanella again, though he doubtless belonged
to the Faventine family of the Manfredi,had also
some connexion with Bologna, since the figure
on the reverse of his medal holds a shield with
the arms of that city. Sperandio was working in
Bologna from 1478 to 1490 or later, and it is,
therefore, to this period that the sheet of drawings
may with most reason be attributed.
II-ALFONSO V OF ARAGON.
BY PAOLODA RAGUSA.
Obv. Bust of Alfonso V to right, bare-headed;
inscr. ALFONSVS REX ARAGONVM
Rev. Female figure, draped, standing to left,
holding purse and serpent staff ; inscr. FORTI-
TVDO MEA ET LAVS MEA DNS
Bronze; diam. 44'5 mm. Pierced. British
Museum. Pl. II, 2.
This piece, although a rather poor cast, is of
considerable interest, as adding one to the very
scanty number of medals that are known to have
been executed by Paolo da Ragusa. The obverse
is indeed identical with that of the artist's medal
of Alfonso V,5which is reproduced here from the
beautiful specimen in Mr. Henry Oppenheimer's
collection (P1. II, I). The reverse also differs
only in the inscription, the artist's signature
OPVS PAVLI DE RAGVSIO being replaced
by a motto. The lettering, it will be noticed,
shows the same peculiar barless A as in the signed
medal.
The motto is an abbreviation of one which we
already know from the Triumph medal by Pisan-
ello to have been adopted by Alfonso : Fortitudo
mea et Laus mea Dominus et factus est michi in
Salutem (Exod. xv. 2). What the type means is
not clear to me; the purse suggests Liberalitas,
the serpent-staff Salus.
III--FEDERIGO III OF ARAGON.
To the hitherto known medals of Federigo III
of Aragon, as heir of Fernando II, the following
is to be added.
5Armand I, 26, 2; Fabriczy, PI. xx, 2.
Notes on Italian Medals
Obv. Bust of Federigo III to left, bare-headed
with long hair, and incurved truncation; inscr
FEDERICVS. DE-ARAG. FER.R.F.DIVI.ALF-
NEP (trefoil).
No reverse.
Bronze; diam. 38 mm. British Museum.
Pl. II, 6.
This medal, or rather (for it is indifferently
cast) the original of which it is the representative,
must have been made in 1495-1496. For Federigo
is described as FER(randi) R(egis) F(ilius) DIVI
ALF(onsi) NEP(os), and Fernando only became
king in 1495,to be succeeded by Federigo himself
in 1496.
Armand6describes two other medals of Fede-
rigo made in the same year; in neither does the
portraitresemble ours. It may be noted that the
Greek legend on one of them, which has puzzled
the French writer, is obviously taken from the
1
Septuagint, Ps. 91, 13 (92, 12), AIKAIOZ
ANOHIEI. 2•1 OINI,
IV-RAFFAELLO MAFFEI DA VOLTERRA.
Obv. RAPHAEL MAFFEVS
VOLATERR"
SCRIPT'APOS Bust 1., wearing cap and gown
over doublet buttoned in front.
Rev. SIC *ITVR AD ASTRA Raffaello, in
the same dress as on the obverse, with 1. hand
raised, stands r. facing a woman, heavily draped
and wearing veil over the back of her head, who
holds in her left two nails (instruments of the
Passion) and raises her r. pointing to heaven;
below, a leaf.
Bronze; diam. 85 mm., comma-shaped stops.
Collection of Mr. George Salting. P1. II, 3. Cp.
Armand II, 52, 24; Heiss, 'Flor.' II, p. 244 and
P1. xxii. 6, 7 (the same specimen).
The author of the encyclopaedic 'Commentarii
Urbani' was born in 1451 at Volterra. We know
that in 1466, at the age of fifteen, he went to
Rome and assumed the clerical habit. In 1476 he
returned to Volterra,and did not return to Rome
until 1480, having in the meanwhile accompanied
the Cardinal of Aragon to Hungary.6a The medal
must, therefore, have been made between 1466
and 1476, while he was still quite a youth,
employed at the Papal curia as scriptor apos-
tolicus. The resemblance of this medal in
style to the accredited medals by Lysippus,
first suggested by Mr. Max Rosenheim, needs
not to be insisted upon when once it has
been pointed out. Although the bust lacks the
form of truncation so characteristic ofthe medallist,
every other feature of his style is abundantly
displayed. The leaf, which, as Mr. Van de Put has
pointed out,7 belongs rather to the poplar than to
the ivy-tree, as I had supposed, is a further point
II, 59, 2, 3.
8eSee B. Falconcini, ' Vita di Raffaello Maffei' (Rome, 1722).
7 BURLINGTON September, I908, Vol. xiii, p. 366.
MAGAZINE,
25
Notes on Italian Medals
of connexion with Lysippus. When we remember
that it is to this very Raffaello Maffei that we owe
the only information which has come down to us
as to the personality of the medallist, whom he
must have known at the Papal Court,the attribution
becomes doubly sure.
The motto ' sic itur ad astra,'adopted by Maffei
at this comparatively early age, is inscribed on
the scroll which is held in the hands of his
recumbent figure on the monument which his
brother Mario erected to his memory in 1526, in
the church of San Lino at Volterra.8
Mr. Salting's specimen, which I am enabled by
his kindness to reproduce, is a wonderfully pre-
served example of a most charming medal, and
quite does justice to the ' volto angelico e leggiadre
fattezze' with which his biographer credits Maffei
V-GIANFRANCESCO DE' RANGONI.
In dealing with the medals of Lysippus on a
previous occasion9 I ventured to doubt Dr. Bode's
attribution to that artist of the medal of
Gianfrancesco Rangone. I take this opportunity
of reproducing the medal and confessing myself,
if not quite a convert to Dr. Bode's view, at least
more inclined to see the force of it. The medal
contains in its small compass more than the usual
number of puzzles. The following is its descrip-
tion :--
Obv. Bust of Gianfrancesco Rangone to 1.,
elderly, wearing cap and cuirass; inscr. D IO 10
FRANCISI P V (leaf).
Rev. Figure?D" RANGONIBVS"
wearing helmet and V" cuirass,
standing on the body of a wolf, his r. resting on
his spear and grasping at the same time a serpent;
on his 1. arm, round shield ; in the field S M ; in
exergue, SECVRITAS ? PP
Bronze, 37'5 mm. Stops comma-shaped. British
Museum (a second specimen in lead). P1. II, 4.
Armand II, p. 93, No. 19; III, p. 191 f.
The most obvious variation from the style of
Lysippus is seen in the shape of the bust. The face
also has more force of character than it is usual
to find in his work. Otherwise everything in
the general treatment and in the details is in
favour of the attribution. The leaf on the obverse
is of the form with which we are familiar; it
appearsalone, it is true, instead of as one of a pair ;
but so it does on the medal of Maffei described
above. The lettering is of the characteristic form;
we may note such a detail as the N with its slanting
stroke prolonged beyond the top of the left
vertical. In the composition of the reverse, the
piece closely resembles the medals of Toscani with
the figure of Pallas, and of Gianfrancesco
Marascha with the figure of Hope.1o
It may, therefore, be granted that the medal is,
s Heiss, op. cit., p. 244.
9BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, August, 190o8,Vol. xiii, pp. 285, 286.
1oSee BURLINGTON ut
MAGAZINE, sul., P1. I, 8, II, 3.
26
if not by Lysippus, then by some pupil, working,
perhaps, at the end of the fifteenth century, or
beginning of the sixteenth, and imitating his
master's handiwork with great success." But
the questions as to the identity of the person
represented and the meaning of the reverse
type remain, and to neither, so far as I
know, has a satisfactory answer been found.
Until he has been certainly identified, specula-
tions as to the meaning of the letters V
are unprofitable.'" The letters S M P" onV'the
reverse have been explained as 'Senatus Muti-
nensis' or as the signature of an artist, ' Scaccera
Mutinensis'; the inscription in the exergue, with
some probability, as ' Securitas Populi.' The
figure has been called Mars, or a Roman warrior
standing on a crocodile ! The creature beneath
his feet seems to be almost certainly a wolf. The
inscription suggests that the figure represents
armed force subduing discord (the serpent) and
some faction symbolized by the wolf."'
VI-GIROLAMO PESARO.
Obv. Bust of Girolamo Pesaro 1.,clean-shaven,
with long hair, wearing cap and robe. No inscr.
Rev. Within a wreath, the inscr. HIERONY-
MVS PISAVRVS PADVAE PRAEFECTVS
BENEDICTI Fr MDXV in
seven lines. PROCVRATORIS,
Diam. mm. Formerly in the Addington
Collection64"5
(?) Pl. II, 5. Cp. Arm. II, 126, 12;
Heiss, ' Venise,' p. 191.
The illustration of this striking medal is made
from a plaster cast, which seems to represent the
Addington specimen, the only one, so far as I
11The treatment of the bust, in which, as I have said, the
medal differs chiefly from the accredited work of Lysippus, is
not unlike that which is found on some medals by L'Antico,
especially that of Diva Julia. In this connexion it must be
remembered that a Rangone would be more likely to come into
contact with a northern than with a Roman medallist.
12F. Sansovino, 'Origine e fatti delle famiglie ill. d'Italia'
(Venice, 1670), p. I39, mentions a Gianfrancesco, a contem-
porary of Guido Rangone, and father-in-law of Albertino
Boschetti. Cp. the statement in the ' Tresor de Numismatique,'
MUd. ital., I, PI. xxxvii, 4, where the medal was first published.
Litta, ' Rangoni,' Tav. II, gives under Lanfranco di Lanfranco
information which seems to suit this Gianfrancesco; is there
some confusion ? A Count Zanfrancescho Maria Rangon is
mentioned in the Chronicle of Jacopino de' Bianchi (I, p. 168)
in 1497. Here we have a further possibility of confusion with
the well-known Francesco Maria Rangone, who is mentioned
in the same chronicle and its continuation by Tommasino
from 1483 onwards, was for a time Castellano of Modena, and
played an important part in Modenese affairs from 1487 until
his death in 1511. Armand, on some authority not disclosed,
says that Gianfrancesco died in 1525 (?). On our medal the
portrait represents a man no longer young,and, to judge by its
style, it must have been made about 1500,
13Mr. Edmund Gardner, whom I desire to thank for much
information connected with the Rangoni, suggests that the
wolf may mean the popular faction in Modena itself. After
the death of Ercole I, in 1505, the Francesco Maria mentioned
in Note 12 had trouble with the Commune. If the figure were
a saint, he could only be St. Defendens, who, according to
Cahier, was a companion of St. Maurice, and is invokedin
Lombardy for protection against wolves, But this would not
explain the serpent.
1 2

NOTES ON ITALIAN
MEDALS, PLATE I
 1 2

5 6

NOTES ON ITALIAN
MEDALS. PLATE II

know, which has been described. It may be
identical with a specimen now in the Berlin
collection. The medal, apart from the admir-
able quality of the portrait, which in its direct-
ness and freedom from superfluities is typical
of Venetian medallic art of the period, is worth
reproducing; for the smaller piece figured by
Heiss gives no clear idea either of the features
or of the style. This larger medal also makes it
doubly certain that the identificationproposed by
Heiss must be discarded. In the lists of procuratori
we find a Girolamo Pesaro in the year 1549. The
man represented on the medal was praefect of
Padua in 1515. If he were identical, as Heiss
supposes, with the man who became procuratorin
1549, it is almost incredible that in 1515 he should
have been as old as the medallistrepresentshim to
be. Further,the matter is clinched by the fact that
the Girolamowho became procuratorin 1549 was
the son of Leonardo, not of Benedetto."5
Girolamo di Benedetto is constantly mentioned
in Sanuto's Diaries.'6 In April 1499 he marriedthe
daughter of Bernardo Donado. He served as
provveditoregenerale at Treviso (on a third medal
he is called 'terrae firmae provisor')17 and on
24th June, 1515, he was elected capitano of Padua.
This post he vacated on 7th January,1517. He was
elected to the Council of Ten on Ist July, 1533.
Further I have not traced him. In style, the
portrait on the obverse of this medal comes very
close to the manner of Giulio della Torre, more
especially as seen in the portrait of Bartolommeo
Socino."' The letteringis also sufficiently careless
to be the work of the Veronese amateur. It is
true that he was fond of placing a type of some
kind, usually charming, on the reverses of his
medals, and it is difficult to think that he would
have been content with a mere inscription.
Chronologically, however, there can be no ob-
jection to the attribution,since della Torre, who
married in 1504, must have been over thirty years
old at the time the medal was cast. It is worthy
of notice that the medal of Socino was also
presumably made at Padua, where the Sienese
jurist, like the artist, professed law. The attribu-
tion to della Torre may, therefore, be regarded as
possessing a certain degree of plausibility.
VII--A GROUP OF FABRICATIONS.
M. de la Tour 19has alreadyexposed the fraud by
140o. cit., P1. xii, 9; Armand11, 126, 13. A specimen of this
smaller medal is in the Simon collection at Berlin (No. 345).
'"Manfredi,'DegnitaiProcuratoria' (1602), s.a. 1549-
16E.g. ii, 6oi0; xx, 326; xxiii, 425 ; Iviii, 520.
17ArmandIII, 206 F., This medal reads ' B. F.,' not ' R. F.'
18 Friedlinder, ' Schaumiinzen,'
P1.xx, 18.
19'Rev. Num.,' 1895,P. 460;..cp, 1896, pp. 479 f.
C 31
Notes on Italian Medals
which 'un goujat,' at the end of the sixteenth or
beginning of the seventeenth century, used
Lysippus's medal of Giovanni Alvise Toscani
in order to fabricate an imaginary portrait of
Giovanni Canacci, just as he made similar por-
traits of other members of the Canacci family out
of the medals of Louis XII and Anne of Bretagne,
and of Vittorino da Feltre. It is extraordinary
that these fabrications should have deceived any-
one in the least acquainted with Italian medals;
but they figure solemnly in the plates of Heiss's
' Florence,' and two of them are also grouped with
the medal of Francesco Accolti in his article on
Candida" as possibly the work of that artist.
Some of them have been attributedto Sperandio,
I suppose because of the roughnessof theirappear-
ance. Now the medal of Accolti, as M. de la Tour
has pointed out, is simply fabricatedout of Candida's
Robert Brigonnet. It is possible to add another
piece to this gallery. Anyone who compares the
medal of Francesco Baroni 2ewith the others just
mentioned will see that it has a family resemblance
to them, especially to the medal of Accolti. The
form assumed by the figure 8 in the incised dates
on the medals of Accolti and Baroni suggests that
they are by the same hand; this form, resembling
a letter S recumbent, is not paralleled,so far as I
know, on any other medal of the fifteenth or
sixteenth century.
But if the medal of Francesco Baroni must be
relegated to the limbo of ' fakes,' it is difficult for
other medals, also enshrined in Heiss's too hos-
pitablevolumes, to escape. The ' horrible palmier,'
as M. de la Tour calls it, with which the forger
has adorned the reverse of his medal of Giuliano
Canacci, belongs to the same kind of art as the
tree on a medal supposed to represent Leonardo
Salviati."2 The supposed medal of Paolo Vettori2
is also of the same class as the Canacciand Salviati
medals; the treatmentof the inscription is enough
to condemn it, even apart from this resemblance.
It] would be easy to add to this list of fabrica-
tions, but I forbear, contenting myself with the
warning that a medal need not be regarded as
giving an authoritative portrait, simply because it
is included in Heiss's uncritical, if extremely
useful, compilation.
20'Rev. Num.,' 1890, Pl. xiii, 3, xvi, x and 2. There is a
specimen of the medal of Accolti in the British Museum. It is
only fair to Heiss to say that,althoughhe had not seen an actual
specimen, he recognized (' Rev. Num.,' 18go,p. 459) the possi-
bility of its being made froma medal of RobertBrigonnet,and
he had some suspicions about the others. But he should not
have admittedthem to his plates.
21 Armand '
22 ' II, 74, 4 ; Heiss, Florence,'P1,.xviii, 4.
Heiss, Florence,' II, P1.xx, 4,
'3 Ibid., I, P1. xxii, 3.