Papal Renaissance medal, Rome

Roman school
PIETRO BARBO (1417-1471)
Dated 1455
Copper alloy, cast; 334mm
Perfect original cast

Obverse: Pietro Barbo tonsured and wearing an embroidered cope.
Inscription: PETRVS BARBVS VENETVS CARDINALIS S(ancti) MARCI (Pietro Barbo, Venetian, cardinal of St. Mark’s).

Reverve: Shield with the arms of Barbo surmounted by the cardinal’s hat. Inscription: HAS AEDES CONDIDIT ANNO CHRISTI M CCCCLV (He founded these buildings in the year of Christ 1455).

Pietro Barbo, the future Pope Paul II (r. 1464-71), was the offspring of a wealthy venetian family and the nephew of Pope Eugenius IV. In 1451, he was made cardinal bishop of San Marco. Barbo was an enthusiastic humanist and antiquarian, an avid collector of antiquities, gems and coins in particular. In 1455, as cardinal of San Marco in Rome, he began the reconstruction of the church of San Marco and the adjoining Palazzo Venezia, still unfinished at the time of his death. Examples of this medal were buried, along with a different type, in the foundations of the palazzo.