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Auction: 390 - Renaissance Plaquettes and Commemorative Medals featuring the Neil A. Goodman Collection - e-Auction
Lot: 106

SPERANDIO OF MANTUA (born ca. 1425-1428, died after 1504)
Pietro Bono Avogario (1425-1506), Physician and Astrologer of Ferrara. Medal, ca. 1476. Bronze, 89.7mm. PETRVS.BONVS.AVOGARIVS.FERRARIENSIS.MEDICVS.INSIGNIS.ASTROLOGVS INSIGNIOR., Older bust left with long hair, wearing cap and gown, rev. Aesculapius standing at left on a dragon, holding a phial and branch, Urania standing at right on a terrestrial sphere, holding an astrolabe and open book; .AESCV-LAPIVS in the left field, .URAN-IE. in the right field, signed below: .OPVS.SPERANDEI. Hill 371; Armand I, 64, 3; Bargello I, 103. cf. Spink, 24 January 2008, lot 108.
This medal likely dates from around 1476, the year in which Avogario published the Bolognese edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia, in which for the first time a map of the terrestrial globe was redrawn using the prescriptions and learnings of Ptolemy (vide: L. Sighinolfi : I mappamondi di Taddeo Crivelli e la stampa Bolognese della Cosmografia di Tolomeo, La Bibliografia X, 1908, p.241). Cast from a model of NGA 84. Yellow-brown patina. An Extremely Fine old cast. InAsta SPA, Sale 71 (San Marino), November 16, 2017, lot 4450.
From the Neil A. Goodman Collection

Sold for
$350

Starting price
$210