Renaissance ruler

At this time, the Italians were culturally more advanced than other European peoples. They led the continent in establishing universities, opening public libraries, founding museums and staging operas.

The Supremacy of Italian City-States

Economically, Italians were supreme, with their hundreds of banking houses owning scores of branches in Europe and the East. This was an age of rich and powerful ruling families such as the Medicis of Florence, the Sforzas of Milan, the Borgias, Gonzagas and d'Estés.

The Italian environment was more adventurous than that of the Middle Ages which preceded it and had a profound effect on Italian coinage. In fact, the Renaissance era was the start of modern coinage and coin collecting and many different talents went into creating them.

The Creators of Renaissance Coinage

The innovator of Renaissance coinage, Antonio Pisanello,was a celebrated artist and medallist. In 1500, eleven years after the first book on ancient coins was published, the renowned architect Donato Bramante designed the first machinery for striking coins.

The prodigiously talented Leonardo da Vinci not only improved Bramante's machinery but designed coins as well. Benvenuto Cellini, the goldsmith and sculptor, was also designer to the Mint of Rome and prepared his own dies for the gold coins of two popes.

Coinage Promotes Tyranny

The tyrant rulers of city-states such as Milan, Mantua, Bologna or Ferrara took full advantage of the prestige they gained by appearing on their own coinage. Among the first of these self-aggrandizing despots was Francesco Sforza who seized control of Milan in 1450.

Although Francesco's ducats were of small module and his portrait was not as striking as he might, perhaps, have wished, this fault was remedied by his son Galeazzo Maria Sforza, his vain, dissolute and ruthless successor.

The Might of the Sforza Family

Galeazzo struck coins that were not only much larger and heavier than his father's, but made his own portrait on the obverse much more prominent. These were double ducats and silver testone which featured the heraldic device of the Sforza family on the reverse.

Galeazzo was assassinated in 1476 and the title Duke of Milan passed to his seven year old son Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza. One of Gian's coins, a gold double ducat, showed him sporting long hair and a skull cap.

His mother, Bona of Savoy, appeared on a silver testone and in 1481, both types of coin featured the boy duke on the obverse: his stern-faced uncle Ludovico il Moro who was, by then, effective ruler ...