102945 | ITALY. Papal States. Pope Pius IX/Basilica of St. Paul bronze Medal.

102945  |  ITALY. Papal States. Pope Pius IX/Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls bronze Medal. Issued 1854 (82mm, 256.22 g, 12h). By Giuseppe Bianchi in Rome.

 

PIVS IX PONT MAX, bust left, wearing zucchetto, mantum, and decorative pallium // PIVS IX P M BASILICAM PAVLI APOST AB INCENDIO REFECTAM SOLEMNI RITV CONSECRAVIT IV ID DEC MDCCCLIV, interior view of the basilica, from a vantage point just to the left of center. Edge: Plain; thickness: 8mm.

 

Bartolotti, "Massimo Modulo," 7; Mazio 731; Molinari 216. Choice Mint State. Glossy dark brown surfaces, with great relief and depth. Given its large-format status, extremely rare in this advanced state of preservation, with no scuffs, distracting marks, or bruising. Includes original box of issue, though rather distressed.

 

Architecture in general plays a heavy role in the medallic art of Pius IX, given the number of restorations done to religious edifices during his rather lengthy reign. In the case of this medal, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside of the Walls (of the Vatican), which suffered a near-total destruction by fire in July 1823, and which was formally reconsecrated in late 1854. Pius IX presided over the longest verified papal reign in history, serving as pope from 1846 to 1878, and also saw the loss of papal dominion over the states (parts of central mainland Italy) to which it laid claim for centuries. Following Italian unification under the King of Sardegna (Sardinia), Vittorio Emanuele II, the peninsula began to coalesce under a single regnum, leaving the rule of Pius in question. When Rome fell, then taking a new role as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, Pius became trapped, literally and figuratively, and considered himself a prisoner in the Vatican—a standoff between the papacy and the kingdom that would last for nearly 60 years. In 1929, and brokered by then-Pope Pius XI and leader of the Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini, the Lateran Treaty ended the longstanding feud between the two factions over the sovereignty of the papacy within the kingdom. The treaty gave the Vatican City to the papacy—a separate city-state headed by the pope within the city of Rome itself—as well as compensation to the papacy by the Italian government for the loss of the territory within the former papal states.

 

Upload: 2 January 2025.