Nomos AG
Auction 25 20 Nov 2022
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ITALY. Papal States. Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici), 1513-1521. Seal or Bulla (Lead, 35 mm, 55.30 g, 12 h), Rome. S / P/A - S/ P/E Nimbate facing heads of St. Paul to left and St. Peter to right; between them, Latin cross, set on the six balls of the Medici arms; all in a circular doted border within by two linear borders. Rev. •PIVS• / •PA•PA• / •IIII• in three lines in a circular doted border within by two linear borders. Serafini 218-220. Very well-struck, well-centered and with the heads of Sts. Paul and Peter in excellent Renaissance style. Minor marks, otherwise, about extremely fine.
From the Dr. Pelc Dens Sapientiae Collection and the Luparello Collection of Papal Medals and Bullae, Classical Numismatic Group E210, 13 May 2009, 466.
Leo X, born Giovanni di Lorenzo de'Medici in 1475, was the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Clarice Orsini. He was destined for the Church from an early age; he was tonsured at 7 and was made a cardinal at 13 (he was only allowed some functions when he was 16, and entered the Sacred College of Cardinals in Rome when he reached 18). He had a humanistic education and was tutored by scholars such as Pico della Mirandela and Marsilio Ficino; but he also studied canon law and theology at Pisa. During the next twenty years Giovanni's life was a peripatetic one: the Medici were thrown out of Florence in 1494 and only managed to return in 1513, the year Giovanni was elected pope under the name Leo X. Upon his election he is supposed to have said "Let us enjoy the papacy since God has given it to us", but even if true, this does not mean he was corrupt in any way. He was a decent, intelligent man, who did many good things but who also enjoyed enjoying himself. On the plus side he was a patron of the arts and of learning, but on the minus, he was wildly profligate with money (he exhausted the treasury left by Julius II), and, certainly more importantly, he greatly underestimated the danger of Luther's 95 Theses and of the general desire for reform.
From the Dr. Pelc Dens Sapientiae Collection and the Luparello Collection of Papal Medals and Bullae, Classical Numismatic Group E210, 13 May 2009, 466.
Leo X, born Giovanni di Lorenzo de'Medici in 1475, was the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Clarice Orsini. He was destined for the Church from an early age; he was tonsured at 7 and was made a cardinal at 13 (he was only allowed some functions when he was 16, and entered the Sacred College of Cardinals in Rome when he reached 18). He had a humanistic education and was tutored by scholars such as Pico della Mirandela and Marsilio Ficino; but he also studied canon law and theology at Pisa. During the next twenty years Giovanni's life was a peripatetic one: the Medici were thrown out of Florence in 1494 and only managed to return in 1513, the year Giovanni was elected pope under the name Leo X. Upon his election he is supposed to have said "Let us enjoy the papacy since God has given it to us", but even if true, this does not mean he was corrupt in any way. He was a decent, intelligent man, who did many good things but who also enjoyed enjoying himself. On the plus side he was a patron of the arts and of learning, but on the minus, he was wildly profligate with money (he exhausted the treasury left by Julius II), and, certainly more importantly, he greatly underestimated the danger of Luther's 95 Theses and of the general desire for reform.