100557 | HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. Bohemia. Death & Resurrection cast silver Medal.
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100557 | HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. Bohemia. Death & Resurrection cast silver Medal. Issued circa 1563. Jonah and the whale/the Resurrection (47mm, 35.32 g, 12h). Possibly by N. Milicz.
SICVT IONAS IN VENTRE CETI TRIDVV LATVIT ET INDE REDIIT INCoLVIS ION Z (just as Jonas spent three days in the belly of a whale and thence returned uninjured...), Jonah and the Whale: seaside scene, with fortifications of Ninevah (now Mosul, Iraq) on the embankment; in the harbor, whale attacking a ship and consuming a fallen Jonah; in foreground, the same whale from which Jonah now flees after three days / ITA CHRISTVS TRIDVV SEPVLTVS POST DEVICTOS HOSTES RESVREXIT MA XI (...so too did Christ spend three days in the heart of the earth and was resurrected after having overcome his enemies), the Resurrection: Christ emerging from a crypt, holding cruciform banner and stomping upon serpent on the Gospels; city walls and trees in background. Edge: Plain.
GPH 69. Extremely Fine. Lightly toned, some scattered marks. An attractive religious-themed type.
This medal recounts the biblical stories of Jonah and the whale and of the resurrection of Christ. In the first (represented on the obverse), God commands Jonah to travel to Ninevah and warn her residents of God's impending wrath. Jonah ignores the command, and instead boards a ship bound for Tarshish. During the travels, the ship is caught in a roiling tempest, and the crew realizes that Jonah is to blame. When he is cast off the ship, a whale (or very large fish) swallows him whole, and Jonah then spends three days within the gigantic creature. When Jonah finally relents and agrees to God's commands, the whale then vomits him upon the shores of Ninevah, whereupon he fulfills his duty, thus saving the city from assured destruction through their repenting. In the second (represented on the reverse), Jesus is shown emerging from a crypt, similarly after three days, whereupon his death and subsequent resurrection in biblical tradition has a more global effect, in that not just Ninevah is redeemed, but the entire world. Ninevah herself, now corresponding to the modern city of Mosul in Iraq, suffered much destruction to her classical sites, such as the Tomb of Jonah (YĆ«nus), at the hands of ISIS in the spring of 2014.
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