Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIV 21 Sep 2017
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Medallic gilt Æ appliqué. 14th-15th centuries AD. Busts of three condottieri, each wearing a Italian styled celata (sallet) helmet and low necked scaled armour. 32.38g, 60mm.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Italian city-states of Milan, Venice, Florence, and Genova were very rich from their trade with the Levant, yet possessed woefully small national armies. In the event that foreign powers and envious neighbours attacked, the ruling nobles hired foreign mercenaries to fight for them. The military-service terms and conditions were stipulated in a condotta (contract) between the city-state and the soldiers (officer and enlisted man), thus, the contracted leader, the mercenary captain commanding, was titled the Condottiere.
The origin of the sallet seems to have been in Italy where the term celata is first recorded in an inventory of the arms and armour of the Gonzaga family dated to 1407. In essence the earliest sallets were a variant of the bascinet, intended to be worn without an aventail or visor.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Italian city-states of Milan, Venice, Florence, and Genova were very rich from their trade with the Levant, yet possessed woefully small national armies. In the event that foreign powers and envious neighbours attacked, the ruling nobles hired foreign mercenaries to fight for them. The military-service terms and conditions were stipulated in a condotta (contract) between the city-state and the soldiers (officer and enlisted man), thus, the contracted leader, the mercenary captain commanding, was titled the Condottiere.
The origin of the sallet seems to have been in Italy where the term celata is first recorded in an inventory of the arms and armour of the Gonzaga family dated to 1407. In essence the earliest sallets were a variant of the bascinet, intended to be worn without an aventail or visor.