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Auction: 390 - Renaissance Plaquettes and Commemorative Medals featuring the Neil A. Goodman Collection - e-Auction
Lot: 157

ITALIAN, ca. 1490
Galeotto Marzio (1427-1497). Medal. Bronze, 108mm. POETA CLARS.MATEMATICVS.ET.ORATOR.GALEOTTVS.MARTIVS, Bare-headed bust in profile left, wearing a scholar's gown, rev. NASCENTES MORIMVR FINIS Q AB ORIGINE PENDET, Incuse shelves with books and an hourglass; SVPERATA TELLVS SIDERA DONAT squared around. Hill 1131.
A noted poet, scholar, mathematician, law professor and wrestler, Marzio was Reader of Poetry and Rhetoric at the University of Bologna from 1462-1477, and also the tutor of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary from 1468-1471. In 1477, he was condemned by the Inquisition for his work "De Incognita Vulgo". Imprisoned, he was released after the intercession of Lorenzo de'Medici and Corvinus. The trompe l'oeil reverse depicting shelves with books and hourglass is one of a very small group of Italian medals to use this technique of perspective, which was often employed by artists in wood who crafted intarsia panels like those seen in Federico da Montefeltro's famous studiolo at Urbino (and elsewhere). Pierced at 12:00, edge nick at 6:00. A Very Fine old cast. International Coin Exchange, Dublin, Auction 8, February 20, 2015, lot 261.
From the Neil A. Goodman Collection

Sold for
$320

Starting price
$280