210, Lot: 412. Estimate $150. Sold for $166. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Medals. Clement XI (Gianfrancesco Albani). 1700-1721. Æ Medal (44mm, 34.88 g, 12h). Giovanni Hamerani, engraver. Dated 1702. CLEM : XI · · PONT : OPT : M :, bust right, wearing tiara and mantum and raising hand in benediction / AVXILIUM · MEVM · A · DOMINO, the ground plan of a chruch; in exergue, · NOVA · BASILICA/S S : XII · APOST/MDCCII in three lines. Mazio 381; Lincoln 1610; cf. Whitman 157 (rev.). EF, a few light marks.

From the Luparello Collection.

Clement XI, born to a noble family in Urbino, became a patron of education and the arts, founding a public library and augmenting the collection in the Vatican. He faced great conflict, however, in the form of the War of Spanish Succession soon after his accession and was eventually forced to support the claims of each side.