Object Description
69 PIERIO VALERIANO BOLZANIO (1475-1558)
Obv. Bust to right. Around, . PIERIVS . VALERIANVS . BELLVNENSIS
Rev. Mercury, holding caduceus and resting left hand on obelisk inscribed with hieroglyphics. Between, INSTAVRATOR
Bronze, 60 mm.
Made about 1545-50, probably at Padua; other medals by the same hand represent Fra Urbano Bolzanio and Florio Maresio. The reverse alludes to Piero's work Hieroglyphica (published at Basel in 1556). In 1545 Piero had marble medallion portraits of himself and Fra Urbano put outside the door of the Frari Church towards S. Rocco. These portraits seem to be dependent on the medals of the two men, which would mean the medals must date from 1545 or earlier.
Bibl.: Arm. 2, p. 176,14; Kress, no. 507 bis; MM. i, p. 296, pl. 64,4; Brescia i, p. 89, no. 622; G. F. Hill, "Medals of the Bolzanio Family," Archiv fuer Medaillen- und Plakettenkunde i (October 1913), pp. 1-6.
