CLEMENT VII


(November 19, 1523 – September 25, 1534)






Clement VII (Medici) Æ




Obv.:

CLEMENS . VII . PONTIF . MAX .

Bust of the pope, r., bareheaded and tonsured, wearing cope.






wreath



Rev.:

POST . MULTA . PLVRIMA . RESTANT .

Draped bearded figure in front of architectural ruins.



[Sack of Rome, 1527 ?]

Spink, —.



Clement VII (Medici), 1534 AV




Obv.:

CLEMENS • VII • PONT • MAX • AN • XI • M •D•XXXIIII

Bust of the pope, l., bareheaded and tonsured, wearing cope.






Moses striking the rock of Horeb with his staff



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.



"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.


 

February 21, 2008 2:35 PM


John Paul Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu

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