210, Lot: 389. Estimate $150. Sold for $215. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Medals. Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini). 1623-1644. Æ Medal (28mm, 31.81 g, 12h). Gaspare Mola, engraver. Dated year 6 (1628/9). VRBAN · VIII · PON · M · AN · VI, bust right, wearing tiara and mantum and raising hand in benediction / NVNC RE PERFECTO, view of the port of Cività-Vecchia. Mazio 194; Lincoln 985-6; cf. DDL p. XXVIII, 11 (rev.). Superb EF.

From the Luparello Collection.

The last Pope to increase the papal territories by force and utilize the practice of nepotism on a grand scale, Urban VIII was at the center of many issues on which he wavered. His papacy lasted spanned much of the Thirty Years War, during which time he openly remained neutral, while privately leaned toward the French. He imprisoned Galileo for his heretical beliefs, but later freed him. He was a great patron to the arts, yet pillaged bronze from the portico of the Pantheon in order to make cannons and other weapons. Ultimately, his military and artistic pursuits cost the Vatican a great deal and hampered his successors.