Two gold medallions of the Apostolo Zeno Collection in the British Museum*

On 12 September 1718 the Venetian erudite Apostolo Zeno (1668–1750) arrived in Vienna, at the court of the Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg (1711–1740) where he remained, more or less permanently, until 1731, and where he devoted himself, from 1722 with increasing assiduity and constancy, to the collection and the study of ancient coins. As a result, an extraordinary collection of over ten thousand pieces was achieved thanks to the considerable wealth provided by his service, as poet laureate, at the imperial court and to the network of relationships he built and maintained throughout his life.

Especially during the first years in Vienna, Zeno had the opportunity to purchase some gold medallions that soon, however, he decided to sell in order to realise a significant profit, as confirmed by a passage in the »Diario Zeniano«[1], dated on 31 July 1745: »Una volta sola so d’aver venduto medaglie[2]: e furono quattro medaglioni d’oro, che diedi all’Albani per 170 zecchini: a me costavano 25 ongari«[3]. Albani has to be identified with the Catholic cardinal Alessandro Albani (1692–1779), born in Urbino, collector of antiquities and art patron.

Zeno came into possession of the four specimens in different times and circumstances. One of these medallions, minted during the reign of Gallienus (253–268 A.D.), was purchased between August and September 1723, when he was in Prague for the coronation of Charles VI as King of Bohemia, and he had the opportunity to acquire the precious specimen, as testified by what he wrote to his half-brother Andrea Cornaro on 14 September 1723: »I giorni passati comperai qui un altro bel medaglione d’oro di peso di quattro ungheri, con la testa di Gallieno da una parte, e dall’altra con un Ercole con clava, e pelle di lione, e la leggenda Virtus Gallieni Augusti«[4]. Zeno’s mention to »un altro bel medaglione d’oro« is indirectly alluding to the first medallion, struck by Valens (364–378 A.D.), that the Count Lippe gave to him two years earlier in Vienna[5].

The description of the Gallienus specimen allows to easily identify the medallion: on the obverse the head of the emperor laureate to the right and the legend IMP GALLIENVS AVG COS V; while on the reverse Hercules standing to the left with the lion’s skin, a branch in the right hand, a club in the left and legend VIRT GALLIENI AVG[6].

As already mentioned, four medallions were sold to cardinal Albani, but unfortunately we do not know the circumstances that led to the acquisition of the other two specimens. However, their description is provided by Zeno himself in a letter of 13 March 1728, addressed to the Somascan father Gianfrancesco Baldini (1677–1764) in Rome[7]. At this date Apostolo already intended to sell his medallions with the aim of obtaining the maximum profit. He was quite reluctant to sell portions of his numismatic collection, although minimal, and the statement »Una volta sola so d’aver venduto medaglie«, leads to this conclusion, and suggests that it was a rather exceptional fact. Perhaps he considered the collection of gold medallions too expensive or too risky, fearing of running into counterfeits[8], and he came to the decision, certainly thoughtful, to sell the four specimens in his possession with the aim, certainly not secondary, to achieve a lucrative profit.

The following is the letter Zeno wrote to Baldini: »A pié di questa (lettera) troverà la descrizione dei quattro medaglioni d’oro ch’io tengo: dei quali però non sarò mai per privarmi per meno di 160. ungheri. Non se ne faccia maraviglia del prezzo, poiché pel solo Valente ho potuto averne 70. e gli ho ricusati, non volendone meno di cento«[9]. In addition to the already mentioned specimens of Valens and Gallienus, Zeno reported the description of the other two medallions:

I. IMP GALLIENVS AVG COS. V. Gallieni caput galeatam.

VIRT GALLIENI AVG. Hercules nudus, dextrorsum stans, dextra oleae ramum, sinistra clavam erectam, leoninis spoliis in laevum brachium rejectis. Pesa quattro ungheri [»weighs four ungheri«].

II. FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOB CAES. Caput Constantinii Chlori radiatum.

PRINCIPI IVVENTVTIS. Constantius laureatus, habituque militari ornatus, sinistrorsum stans, d. spiculum transversum gestat, s. globum. In imo PROM. Pesa quattro ungheri [»weighs four ungheri«][10].

III. D N VALENS MAX. AVGVSTVS. Caput Valentis cum diademate ex lapillis & margaritis, cum paludamento ad pectus gemmata fibula revincto, dextram expansam altollens, s. victoriam tenet, quae s. ramum gerit, d. vero laureolam porrigit Imperatori.  

D N VALENS VICTOR SEMPER AVG. Imperator nimbo ornatus, cum paludamento ad pectus, a fronte stans, super currum a sex equis tractum, dextra expansa & elata, s. globum tenet. Hinc & inde volitant duae victoriae lauream illi porrigentes. In ima parte plures, ut videntur, monetarum acervi, & litterae R M. Pesa dieci ungheri e mezzo in circa [»weighs about ten ungheri and half«]. Sopra questo medaglione il P. Paoli ha stampata un’erudita dissertazione [regarding this medallion, P. Paoli wrote an erudite dissertation][11].

IV. ALEΞANΔΡΟΥ. Victoria dextrorsum stans, d. lauream, s. sceptrum: pro pedibus, vas utrinque ansatum. Pesa cinque ungheri [»weighs five ungheri«][12].

The letter to Baldini provides a last important information: »Tutti i suddetti medaglioni d’oro purissimo sono d’indubitata antichità, e d’intera conservazione. In quello di Gallieno v’è un buco sopra la testa; e questo è il solo difetto che v’abbia«[13].

The exact date of the sale of the medallions to Albani is unknown but in 1738 the collection of the medallions of the Cardinal, including the four specimens sold by Zeno, passed to the Vatican collection[14] and the transaction, therefore, must have occurred before that year.

Between 1739 and 1744 a work was published, in two volumes, edited by Rodolfo Venuti (1705–1763)[15]: »Antiqua numismata maximi moduli Aurea, Argentea, Aerea, ex Museo Alexandri S.R.E. Card. Albani in Vaticanam Bibliothecam a Clemente XII Pont Opt Max translata (…)«, in which he described many of the medallions of the former Albani collection, and among them, the four specimens which had belonged to Zeno. In the first volume, published in 1739, the double stater of Alexander the Great is indicated (see note 12, and fig. 1) with a weight of 16.767 g[16], lighter than the one reported by Zeno (»cinque ungheri«, about 17.25 g, see note 3). The other three specimens were included in the second volume, published in 1744; following the chronological order it mentioned the medallion of Gallienus (fig. 3), with a weight of 13.91 g[17], almost the same cited by Zeno (»quattro ungheri«, about 13.8 g). It is however important to highlight a detail: its reproduction does not present the hole over the head (see above). It could be an oversight or, more likely, the engraver’s intention to show the intact medallion[18]. The last two specimens, related to Costantius Chlorus (fig. 6) and Valens (fig. 2), are respectively of a weight of 12.64 g (Zeno indicated »quattro ungheri«, 13.8 g)[19] and 36.25 g, almost the same mentioned by Zeno (»dieci ungheri e mezzo in circa«)[20].

The medallions were displaced in 1798, when, under the terms of the treaty of Tolentino, stipulated the previous year, the specimens from the Albani collection, as well as many other precious coins, were taken from the Vatican collection by the delegates of the French Republic, and brought to Paris[21].

We can affirm with reasonable certainty that two of the four medallions belonged to Apostolo Zeno are now kept in the British Museum, both coming from the Louis de Blacas d’Aulps collection, which was entirely purchased by the Museum in 1867. The first medallion is the Gallienus one (Museum number 1867,0101.821, with a weight of 13.980 g, fig. 5), declared to be owned, in the information entry of the Museum, by the Duke of Blacas[22]. The aristocrat is mentioned as the owner of the specimen also in the fourth volume of the first edition of Henry Cohen’s work, »Description historique des monnaies frappées sous l’Empire Romain«, published in 1860[23]. In 1868 Frederic W. Madden (1839–1904) writing for the Numismatic Chronicle about the gold coins of the Blacas Collection acquired the previous year by the British Museum, reported exactly this Gallienus medallion (fig. 4)[24]. The Duke’s name appears also in the Francesco Gnecchi’s work on the Roman medallions, published in 1912, in which the author reports the Gallienus medallion and, among the known pieces, a specimen preserved in London with the following words: »già Blacas anticamente Vaticano, m. 28, gr. 14.000«[25]. It is obviously the medallion kept in the British Museum with the identification number mentioned above, and it is more than plausible to conclude that it is the same specimen belonged to cardinal Albani, and before to Apostolo Zeno, even more so if we consider the provenance of the Vatican collection. Lastly, to corroborate the hypothesis there is also another important clue represented by the hole placed over the head of Gallienus, a detail also reported by Zeno in his letter to Baldini (»un buco sopra la testa«, see above).

Thanks to the publication of Gnecchi we can trace also the location of the Costantius Chlorus medallion. In the concerning form the author wrote: »Londra (già Blacas anticamente Vat. Alb.) m. 25, g. 12,975«[26]. Therefore, this specimen followed the same path of the previous one to reach the collection of the British Museum, where it is still kept (Museum number 1867,0101.879, with a weight of 12.830 g, fig. 7)[27].

The research of the specimens that belonged to the numismatic collection of Apostolo Zeno is partly the subject of my doctoral thesis, and represents a fascinating evolving path that it can never really says to be concluded. Nevertheless, every coin found, and returned, to its collector’s history helps to keep alive the interest for a collector and a collection that do not really deserve to be forgotten.