Lot 139: [ ITALIAN MEDALS ]

JACOPO NIZZOLA DA TREZZO (c. 1514-1589) Philip II of Spain (1556-1598), silver medal commemorating the Spanish conquest of America, PHILIPPVS II D G HISP REX, bust right; incised below, IAC TRICI F, rev., SIC ERAT IN FATIS (Thus it was decreed by the fates), two hands attaching a globe to a yoke, 30.2mm (Attwood 95; Armand I, 242, 6; MI I, 148, 118; van Loon I, 387), finely chased, an extremely fine contemporary cast

Provenance: Prince de Ligne collection, Sotheby's, 17 June 1976, lot 551; Numismatica Genevensis 5, 2-3 December 2008, lot 690. The unusual form of the artist's signature has made some authorities doubt that it is the work of Trezzo himself and might rather be a Dutch piece relating to the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. However Attwood notes its presence among the 270 medals placed in the tabernacle of S. Lorenzo, for which Trezzo is known to have been paid thirty-eight ducats.