medal
- Museum number
- G3,FrM.819
- Description
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Silver medal. (whole)
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Fame, holding a laurel wreath and blowing her trumpet flies above an oak tree, at the foot of which a hand is inscribing a scroll. (reverse)
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Bust of Louis II, duc de Bourbon, prince de Condé, right, wearing armour, a lace cravat and the ribbon of an order. (obverse)
- Production date
- 1668
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 54.500 millimetres
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Weight: 49.79 grammes
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Thickness: 2.50 millimetres (at rim)
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Thickness: 4.50 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Jones 2
The reverse indicates that no pen would be equal to describing the actions of the Prince so that it would be left to Fame to say the rest. The legend derived from a phrase of Ovid's: 'Materiam superabit opus' (Metamorphoses 2, 5).
Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé (see registration no. M.0611) was, under Louis XIV, in command of the army which conquered the Franche Comté early in 1668. The reverse refers to this great feat of generalship.
Menestrier, writing in the late 1670s, cited this as one of the devices found on the reverse of medals which 'font un méchant effet à la vue' because not invented specifically for medallic use (see 1).
Other examples:
(a) Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale, 58 rue de Richelieu, 75084 Paris, France (BN, Paris), Sér. des Princes Fr. no. 108, struck silver 54.5 mm. From the same obverse and reverse dies.
(b) BN, Paris, Sér. des Princes Fr. no. 109, cast bronze, 53.5 mm.
(c) Musée des Beaux-Arts, Palais Saint-Pierre, Lyon, France, bronze, 53.5 mm.
(d) Musée de la Monnaie, Paris, France. Two numbered puncheons bearing Condé's portrait.
(e) Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, silver, 54 mm.
(f) Civici Musei, Brescia, Italy, bronze, 51 mm.
Bibliography:
1. Menestrier La devise du Roy justifiée p. 106.
2. Repertoire des médailles cl685, p. 33v.
3. Ch. Perrault Les Hommes Illustres II p. 86.
4. T. N. Méd. Fr. III pl. 12, no. 3.
5. Musée Monétaire p. 177, no. 414.
6. Rizzini Brescia II p. 100, no. 29.
7. Mazerolle Varin I no. 62.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1825
- Department
- Coins and Medals
- Registration number
- G3,FrM.819
- C&M catalogue number
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MF2 (Jones 2) (238) (257)
