CORPUS
NVMISMATVM OMNIVM ROMANORVM PONTIFICVM (C.N.O.R.P. - Vol. II)
Rome 2003 - edited by the author.
In 4° (31.5 x 23.5 cm) - 544 pages - Print run of 300 copies - 230
medals catalogued, 470 black and white photographs - 27 black and white
recapitulatory plates and 8 colour plates.
Introduction by Franco Bartolotti (Emeritus scholar of Papal medals).
This is the second in a series of four volumes cataloguing and detailing
all the papal medals of the XV and XVI centuries. This first volume reaches
1559, obviously including all the medals of Paul IV’s papacy (1555-1559).
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.
“...The great virtue of this volume – as of its predecessor – is the different way the material is organized, compared with the most important works published in the Twentieth Century, considering the method of research, the severity of the analysis, the completeness of the information given, and the in-depth critical examination of the minting of the exemplars, something all too rare in works of classification...Years and years of study are behind this weighty enterprise of the C.N.O.R.P. and, with so many serious obstacles now overcome, the centuries-old problem of deciding an order for the papal medals is now on the way to being definitively resolved. For a long time now the need for a ‘Corpus’ has been felt by all who have taken an interest in the subject, but the achievement of one was regarded as something still far in the future, given the difficulty and complexity of the question…Now that that day has arrived (today I am holding a copy of the II volume in my hands) I begin reading and can immediately see that this is something completely different from what had been published previously, both in its methods and its results: I have known many scholars in this field, but all of their work has been either over-specialized or superficial.”
(Franco Bartolotti)