- Museum number
- 1925,0803.14
- Description
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Cast lead medal. Pierced twice, plugged below bust. (whole)
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Bust of Claude Expilly, right, in classical dress. (obverse)
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A standing woman holding up a figure of Justice, holding her sword and balance in one hand and pointing down at a trophy with the other. (reverse)
- Production date
- 1601
- Dimensions
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Thickness: 1.40 - 4.20 millimetres
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Diameter: 33.000 millimetres
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Weight: 15.21 grammes
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Jones 2
This motto from the Aeneid (VI, 170, of Achates, faithful companion to Aeneas) was quite widely used on medals and jetons. Typotius (see 2) gives it to Marguerite de Valois (fig. 23), Paradin (see 3) to Marguerite d'Orléans, Queen of Navarre (with reference to the eponymous flower's habit of turning its face to the sun).
Claude Expilly (1561-1636), Seigneur de la Poepe and Seigneur de Voiron, was Advocate General (1603) and President (1616) of the Parlement of Grenoble. In 1596 he published a book of verse dedicated to Gabrielle d'Estrées (see 1 and registration no. 1930,0707.23), book two of which is addressed to François de Bonne (see registration no. M.0636) whose councillor and confidant he was. Expilly also addressed a poem to Brulart de Sillery (see registration no. M.0632). According to Alfred de Bougy his works were, without exception, 'cold, in bad taste and completely lacking in inspiration'.
Expilly was known as a collector both of medals and of books (see 4,7) and he appears on a number of other medals including two by Olier, dated 1629 and 1630, another by Dupré, dated 1636, and an anonymous piece dated 1619 (see Mazerolle II nos 711, 775, 776 and 864).
Henri IV appointed Expilly a member of the Council which dispensed justice in the occupied territories between the defeat of the Duke of Savoy in summer 1600 and the conclusion of peace early in 1601. The reverse asserts that his role during this period was superior to those who had actually fought and won the battles, a surprising sentiment for the period and particularly so from Expilly who had himself been a soldier in earlier life.
The medal presumably dates from early in 1601, before Dupré's return to Paris.
Other examples:
(a) Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale, 58 rue de Richelieu, 75084 Paris, France (BN, Paris), Sér. Icon. Fr. 273, cast and chased silver, 35 mm (32.5 mm without rim).
(b) BN, Paris, Sér. Icon. Fr. 274, cast bronze, 36 mm (33.0 mm without rim).
(c) Albert I Royal Library, Brussels, bronze 34 mm. Aftercast.
Bibliography:
1. Poèmes ...à Madame la marquise de Monceaulx .... à Messire Francois de Bonne, seigneur de Lesdiguières 1596.
2. Typotius I p. 137 pl. 59 no. 9.
3. C. Paradin, Devises Heroiques, Paris 1621, pp.45-6.
4. L. Jacob, Traicté, p.647.
5. T.N. Méd. Fr. II pl. XVIII no. 1.
6. G. Vallier 'Numismatique du Parlement de Grenoble' Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie de la Drame 1879, pp. 41-2 and pl. 1 no. 4.
7. E. Bonnaffé, Amateurs français, p. 102.
8. Mazerolle II no. 634.
9. Dictionnaire de Biographie Françoise XIII pp.324-6.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1925
- Department
- Coins and Medals
- Registration number
- 1925,0803.14
- C&M catalogue number
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MF2 (Jones 2) (54) (9)
