210, Lot: 416. Estimate $150. Sold for $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Medals. Benedict XIII (Pietro Francesco Orsini). 1724-1730. Æ Medal (38mm, 24.92 g, 12h). Ermenegildo Hamerani, engraver. Dated 1729. BENED · XIII P · MAX · A · VI, bust left, wearing camauro, mozzetta, and pallium and raising hand in benediction / APOTHEOSIS IN LATERANO, Saint advancing left on cloud being crowned by angel to right; in exergue, S · IOAN NEPOM/MDCCXXIX in two lines. Mazio 429; Lincoln 1747; Whitman 164. Superb EF.

From the Luparello Collection.

Benedict XIII was the third and final member of Orisini family to serve as Pope. Born in Gravina to noble parents, he was a man of modesty and simplicity, pursuing an end to the rather lavish lifestyles of the priests and cardinals. This simplicity lent itself to his inability to rule, thereby delegating many of his powers to Cardinal Niccolò Coscia, a man who eventually caused the economic collapse and ruin of the Papal treasury.