287, Lot: 711. Estimate $200. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papale (Stato pontificio). Paulus III (Alessandro Farnese). 1534-1549. Æ Medal (39mm, 24.85 g, 12h). By J. F. Parmensis. Dated RY 16 (1549). Bust left, wearing zucchetto and mantum / View of Rome. Mazio 53; Lincoln 505. EF, rich brown surfaces, die crack on the reverse.

From an old English collection.

One of the few Popes to have fathered children before his election, Paul III was also the first Pope to understand the threat which was posed by the Reformation, on account of which he began a Counter-Reformation. He officially recognized the Jesuits, known as the Society of Jesus and commissioned the painting of the Last Judgment by Michelangelo.