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 MEDALS

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MEDALS

and even later, but in the sixteenth or seventeenth century they began to be replaced by medals properly so called in bronze or in silver, often with much greater pretensions to artistic execution. With these leaden signs should be noted the custom of casting coin-like tokens in connexion with the Feast of Fools (q. v.), the celebration of the Boy Bishop and the Innocents. The extant specimens belong mostly to the sixteenth cen- tury, but the practice must be much older. Though there is often a burlesque element introduced, the legends and devices shown by such pieces are nearly all religious; e. g., ex ore infancium perfecisti laudem; innocens vous aidera, etc. (.see Vanhende, "Plommes des Innocents," Lille, 1S77).

Better deserving of attention are the vast collec- tion of jetnns and m&eaii-x which, beginning in the thirteenth century, continued to be produced all through the Middle Ages and lasted on in some places down to the French Revolution. The jctons were strictly speaking counters, i. e., they %vere thin pieces of metal, mostly latten, a sort of brass, stamped on both sides with some device and originally u.sed in conjunction with a comptoir (i. e., an abacus or count- ing board) to perform arithmetical computations. The name comes from jcter, through the form jectnir, because they were "thrown down" upon this board (see Rondot, "Medailleurs Franeais", Paris, 1904, p. 48). It soon became the fashion for e\-ery personage of distinction, especially those who had anything to (lo with finance, to have special jetons bearing his own device, and upon some of these considerable artistic skill was lavished. These pieces served various pur- poses besides that for which they were originally de- signed, and they were often used in the Middle Ages where we should now use a ticket or printed card. As might be expected, they tended to take a religious tone. Upon nearly half the medieval jetons which survive, pious mottoes are found and often pious de- vices (Rouyer, "Histoire du Jeton", p. .30). Among the commonest of these mottoes, which however vary infinitely, we might name .ave mari.a grati.a plena; AMES DiEU ET Lo (1. 0. aimez dieu et louez le) ; IHS son

GRE SOIT FAIT CI; VIRGO M.ATER ECCLESIE ETERNE

porta; domine dominus noster, etc. Often these jetons were given as presents or " pieces de plaisir " es- pecially to persons of high consideration, and on such occasions they were often specially struck in gold or silver. One particular and very common use of je- tons was to serve as vouchers for attendance at the cathedral offices and meetings of various kinds. In this case they often carried with them a tit le to certain rations or payments of money, the amount being some- times stamped on the piece. The tokens thus used were known as jetons de presence or mireaiix, and they were largely used, especially at a somewhat later date, to secure the due attendance of the canons at the cathe- dral offices, etc. What, however, specially justifies their mention in the present place is the fact that, in many cases the pious device they bore was as much or even more considered than the use to which they were put, and they seem to have discharged a function analogous to the Child-of-Mary medals, the scapulars, the badges and even the pious pictures of our own day. One famous example is the "mereau d'estaing" bear- ing stamped upon it the name of Jesus, which the fa- mous Frere Richard, whose name is closely if not too creditably associated with the history of Blessed Joan of Arc, distributed to his followers in Paris, 1429 (see Rouyer, "Le Nom de Jdsus" in "Revue Beige de Numis."_, 1S96-7). These jetons stamped with the IHS, which is only another way of writing the Holy Name, were very numerous and were probably closely connected with the apostolate of St. Bernardine of Siena. Finally it is to be noted that for the purpose of largess at royal coronations or for the Maundy, pieces were often struck which perhaps are rather to be regarded as medals than actual money (see Maze- X.— 8

rolle, "Les Medailleurs Franc^ais", 1902-1904, vol. I, page lii).

In Modern Times. — Although roughly speaking it is correct to say that medals were unknomi in the Middle Ages, still their introduction belongs to the early Renaissance period, and it is only when we con- sider them as a form of popular devotion that we can describe them as of post-Reformation origin. Medals properly so called, i. e. pieces of metal struck or cast with a commemorative purpose, began, though there are only a few rare specimens, in the last years of the fourteenth century (Rondot, loc. cit., 60-62). The first certainly known medal was struck for Francesco Carrara (Novello) on the occasion of the capture of Padua in 1390, but practically the vogue of tiiis form of art was created by Vittore Pisano, called Pisanello

Medallion of Enamel P\ste and Coloured Bonb prom Armellmi, II cumtero di Santa Agnese"

(c. 1380-14.51), and its first developments were all Italian. These early Renaissance medals, magnifi- cent as they are, belong to civil life ami only touch upon our immediate subject, but though not religious in intent many of them possess a strong religious colouring. Nothing more devotional could be imag- ined than the beautiful reverse of Pisano's medal of Malatesta Novello, where the mail-clad warrior dis- mounting from his horse is represented as kneeling be- fore the crvicifix. So again the large medal, in the British Museum, of Savonarola holding the crucifix, probably executed by Andrea della Robbia, portrays with rare fidelity "his deep-set glowing eye, his bony cheeks, the strong nose and protruding lips" (Fabriczy, "Italian Medals", p. 133), while the re- verse displays the avenging sword of God and the Holy Ghost hovering over the doomed city of Flor- ence. Wonderful again in their religious feeling are Antonio Marescotti's (c. 1453) superb medals of San Bernardino da Siena, while among the series of early papal medals we have such masterpieces as the por- trait of Sixtus IV by Andrea Guazzalotti (1435-95).

But it was long before this new art made its in- fluence so far widely felt as to bring metal representa- tions of saints and shrines, of mysteries and miracles, together with emblems and devices of all kinds, in a cheap form into the hands of the people. Undoubtedly the gradual substitution of more artistic bronze and silver medals for the rude pilgrim's signs at such great sanctuaries as Loreto or St. Peter's, did much to help on the general acceptance of medals as objects of de- votion. Again the papal jubilee metlals, which cer- tainly began as early as 1475, and which from the nature of the case were carried into all parts of the world, must have helped to make the iflea familiar. But this was not all. At some time during the six- teenth century the practice was adopted, possibly