CORPUS NVMISMATVM OMNIVM ROMANORVM PONTIFICVM (C.N.O.R.P. - Vol. I)

Rome 2002 - edited by the author - In 4° (31.5 x 23.5 cm) - 680 pages -Print run of 300 copies -
263 medals catalogued, 33 black and white recapitulatory plates - 526 black and white photographs and 15 colour plates.
Introduction by Mario Traina
(President of the Academy of Numismatic Studies)


This is the first in a series of four volumes cataloguing and detailing all the papal medals of the XV and XVI centuries. This first volume reaches 1523, obviously including all the medals of Hadrian VI’s papacy (1521-1523). The medals are catalogued according to a new method, respecting the chronological sequence of the Popes, and the chronological order in which they were created under each Pope. For each medal a standard file has been drawn up occupying two pages, providing life-size photographs of the obverse and reverse, the name of the artist, all the distinguishing technical data, their characteristic features, the rarity and a brief historical account of the event commemorated.

The files are completed by the explanation and translation of the inscriptions, the most important bibliographical information and additional photographs to illustrate the information given. The files are preceded by a brief history of the papal medal, a long and exhaustive chapter on the medals of restitution and another on the Papal re-mintings. The volume is completed by short biographies of the artists, an ample bibliography, an alphabetical index of the inscriptions on the reverses and recapitulatory plates with pictures of all the medals catalogued.

“…Anyone who knows how difficult it is in this field to distinguish original medals from later copies and counterfeits will find in the pages of the C.N.O.R.P. an extremely useful and practical means of verifying and distinguishing…”

(Mario Traina)