Dieudonné de Gozon – “The Dragon Slayer”
The Finest of Five Known

Triton XVIII, Lot: 1459. Estimate $75000. Sold for $45000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CRUSADERS, Knights of Rhodes (Knights Hospitaller). Dieudonné de Gozon. 1346-1353. AV Ducat (21mm, 3.53 g, 1h). Struck circa 1350-1353. S/I/O/h/Λ/n/n/Є/S/B to left, m/G/R and F · DЄODAT’ to right, S. Giovanni standing right and Grandmaster kneeling left, holding banner between them / + hOSPITALIS (retrograde Q)VEnT’ · RODI, angel, seated facing on the open tomb of Christ, holding lis-tipped scepter in right hand, left hand on knee. Schlumburger, pl. IX, 22 (line drawing only) = Metcalf, Crusades p. 299 (same) = CCS 11 = Gamberini 372 (line drawing only) = Ives, pl. IX, 1 = Papadopoli 15643; Auctiones 11, lot 763 (same rev. die). Near EF. Extremely rare, one of five known.

Ex Nomos 1 (6 May 2009), lot 185; Numismatica Ars Classica 26 (27 June 2003), lot 3364.

Little is known of this Rhodian Grandmaster. Born of a noble family in Languedoc, Dieudonné de Gozon achieved a reputation when he slew a “dragon” - a large crocodile that had been been hiding in a local swamp and killing the local livestock. For this, he was given the epithet ‘Dragonslayer’ (Extinctor draconis). In 1347/8, Dieudonné de Gozon led the Knights of Rhodes to assist Constantine IV of Armenia, who was then being threatened by the Sultan of Egypt.

This coin was almost certainly struck towards the end of Gozon’s reign since equally rare examples of the same type were struck by his successor, Pierre de Corneillan (1354-1355). They must have been struck in very small numbersand intended as presentation pieces - they are now among the greatest rarities of all the issues of the Knights of Rhodes.