Lot 109: [ ITALIAN MEDALS ]

ATTRIBUTED TO NICCOLÒ SPINELLI, called FIORENTINO (1430-1514) Girolamo Ridolfi da San Giminiano (1465-1526), bronze medal, HIE DE SANCTO GEMINIANO S APS (Girolamo of San Giminiano, apostolic scriptor), bust left wearing cap and plain gown, rev., GEMINIO DICATVM (Dedicated to Geminiano), Pegasus springing to right, 51mm (Hill 940; Armand II, 52, 22 and III, 173, 1; Bargello 232; Scher 43), twice pierced, some wear to the reverse but otherwise an extremely fine contemporary cast of very high quality, with brown patina

Provenance: The Estate of John R. Gaines, Morton & Eden, 8 December 2005, lot 10. This belongs to a group of medals attributed on stylistic grounds to Fiorentino, connected with Rome and made c.1480-1486, and includes three medals of Pope Innocent VIII. Pollard, in Currency of Fame, records that Girolamo was a son of Lodovico Ridolfi of San Giminiano. In 1477 he was living in Rome and by the mid 1480s had been appointed apostolic scriptor (secretary). Pope Julius II later named him consistorial advocate. The reverse inscription dedicates the medal to the city's patron saint, St. Geminianus who, when the city was under attack by Attila the Hun, miraculously appeared to Attila in a vision and prevented the city's destruction.