Paolo Benatti Collection

Clement VII (1523-1534) Oxidional ducat (1527) - Munt. 21.I; MIR 796/2 (this specimen) AG (g 35.67) RRR Excellent quality specimen for this historic coin. The minting period of these ducats is that of the terrible year of the sack of Rome, which runs precisely from May 6 to December 8, 1527. They were minted at Castel Sant'Angelo, where the pontiff had taken refuge following the capture of Rome by mercenaries in the pay of the Imperials. The sack of the city had disastrous proportions. In the first day of fighting 6,000 Romans lost their lives defending the Urbe, while another 2,000 people, who had sought escape on Tiber boats, drowned in the river when these, overloaded, capsized. The capital's population of 90000 was reduced from 90000 to little more than a third, 20000 were passed over by the guns, 10000 abandoned the city, and another 30000 died as a result of the plague caused by the sack. Nothing was saved from the havoc wrought by the Lansquenets, not the women who were subjected to unspeakable violence, not the palaces and monuments; every house was sacked and the churches desecrated. The rooms of the Vatican, with frescoes by Raphael, Botticelli and Michelangelo were turned into a guardhouse. Countless works of art were lost forever in the fury of those days; the statue of Laocoon was torn to pieces. Only Castel Sant'Angelo, the ancient Roman tomb built by Emperor Hadrian, already fortified since the fifth century and recently restored and reinforced, withstood the siege laid by the Lansquenets, who were always repulsed by artillery. All that remained for the Imperials, who had dug all around the mausoleum a trench using prisoners, was to wait for food shortages and the plague to open the gates of the fortress. On June 5, the pontiff had to surrender, and the terms of the surrender were very harsh: in addition to the payment of about 400000 ducats, the tithe of all ecclesiastical property in Charles V's lands and the surrender to the Imperials of Ostia, Civitavecchia, Modena, Piacenza, Parma and Forli, it was decided to hold three cardinals and as many of the pope's close relatives as hostages and the imprisonment of the latter in Castel Sant'Angelo until the ransom was paid in full. Although payment was made by August, Pope de' Medici remained a prisoner for 6 months during which time sacred gold and silver furnishings were melted down to meet the occupants' constant demands for money. Clement VII managed to escape from the castle on the night of December 8 disguised as a servant. The next day the fortress was handed back to the Papal Legate. On February 17, 1528, the Imperials decimated by the plague moved on to Naples. The ducats with their fractions were minted with makeshift silver from the casting of sacred furnishings, pottery and relics. Accounts from the period confirm this extraordinary minting for the payment of the pontiff's ransom. An author, the Florentine Domenico de'Rossi, a fellow prisoner of the pope, in his "Memorie Storiche" thus writes of the pontiff's capitulation: "...The first head was, that His Holiness should pay 400,000 ducats to the Caesarian army in three payments, that is, 100,000 presently, 50,000 in twenty days, that is, for the whole day 26 of the same month of June, and the remaining 250,000 in the next two months etc. The Zecchieri were called to the Castle and immediately given the gold and silver, which was sheltered in it, the 100 thousand Scudi promised and presently paid were imprinted with it; the other 50 thousand were going to put them together, of candlesticks, crosses, vases and ornaments of Relics, which made imprinted with the heads of S. Peter and Paul , and with the arms of His Holiness, were similarly paid to those insatiable crowds." From the Scylla we report that on assay these ducats revealed a fair amount of gold, and this is probably the reason why they were sought after and melted down by the speculators of the time, thus determining their great rarity. From Varesi ANPB auction, Milan October 7/8, 2016, lot 1528. There are 2 known variants of this ducat, one without a cross behind the Saints' heads and one with a cross. This one, with cross, turns out to be of rarer appearance and the best specimen of this variant. In the 2012 NAC 69 auction, lot 774, a superior specimen, but of the "without cross" variant, in M.of SPL conservation, realized € 65,000.00 + fees. SPL