Page 411 - Notiziario del Portale Numismatico dello Stato n. 15/2021

Notiziario PNS n. 15/2021 409

In volume 1, after the introduction by Serafina Pennestrì in the chapter “Medaglie de-
vozionali e Contesti Archaeologici”, two contributions by Laura Venditelli and Serafina Penn-
estrì present medal finds from the monastery of Santa Maria della Rosa and from the Mauso-
leo di Sant’ Elena. The former area was excavated as part of the systematic excavations in the
Crypta Balbi complex in Rome in the 1980s under the direction of Daniele Manacorda. This
excavation can be considered one of the initial steps in medieval and modern archaeologi-
cal research in Italy. A total of twenty medals and two cross pendants from the Cripta Balbi
and a further medal from the Mausoleum of Saint Elena, whereby only Rome could be de-
termined as the place of manufacture. According to the editor, several finds can be probably
(cat. no. 19) or have been surely (cat. nos 18, 20) assigned to the Hamerani workshop, others
are inspired by the Hamerani medals (cat.no. 10). Marco Milanese’s contribution discusses
the state of archaeological research on religious medals in Italy with a focus on sites from
Tuscany and Sardinia.
The following chapter, “Tra iconografia, agiografia e devozione popolare”, brings to-
gether contributions that, on the one hand, acknowledge the outstanding importance of the
collection from the Hamerani workshop and its treatment (article by Leandro Ventura, Vitto-
rio Casale) and, on the other hand, contextualise the role of religious medals from various
disciplinary perspectives: Fabio Fichera uses selected photographs from the archive of Istitu-
to Centrale per la Demoetnoantropologia (ICDe) to show how medals and other devotional
objects have shaped the social and cultural life of Italy over the last 50 years. Fr. Daniel Ols
(O.P.) provides a profound source analysis of the papal canonization processes as the basis of
ecclesiastically sanctioned veneration of saints from the Council of Trent onwards, as well as
the attempts to stop the veneration of non-canonized “saints” and the cults associated with it.
In her contribution Eleonora Giampiccolo presents the Papal coin collection and its sub-col-
lections of religious medals, which are of highest importance for understanding the subject
matter discussed in this volume. The volume concludes with an art-historical essay by Franco
Ivan Nucciarelli on the “Bambin Gesú delle Mani” by Pinturicchio, an image of grace dating
th
back to the late 15 century in its creation.
The final chapter, “Il campionario di medaglie devozionali della bottega Hamerani”,
focuses entirely on the sample collection of the Hamerani workshop. It begins with a paper
by Br. Yohannes Teklemariam Bache (OFMCap.), director of the Franciscan Museum, gives an
overview on the history of the museum and the collection which this important find is part of.
Then, three already published articles follow, dealing respectively with the sample collection
and the Hamerani workshop. The section starts with the article of Br. Servus Gieben (OFM
Cap.) from 2006, in which the collection was presented for the first time, but did not include
any illustration. The monograph does not require any fundamental change or correction to
the initial description, so that it remains an excellent guide through the sample collection.
Gieben presents the contents of the individual boxes one after the other and provided the
first observations and results. For example, the arrangements of medals on the boards makes
it possible to assume front and back sides of medals; first results on the occurrence and fre-
quency of motifs are also mentioned. Furthermore, the identification of the manufacturer’s
initials with the members of the Hamerani family working as medal makers on about half
of the plaques, as well as the identification of the mark of the Capitoline she-wolf with the
Hamerani workshop, are of great importance. In addition to the 2006 paper, the individual
boxes are now shown here in large format (pp. 162-185).
Thereafter, two papers by Serafina Pennestrì from 2008 and 2009 are reprinted. In
the article “All’insegna della lupa. Il patrimonio della bottega Hamerani in due documenti
dell’Archivio di Stato di Roma” (2009), she presented two preserved inventories of the Ham-
erani workshop from 1739 and 1790, which give, in many different ways, an insight into the
working methods, inventory and technical equipment of the 18 century, especially at a time
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when the workshop took on the function of a provisional papal mint (1734-1738). The article
is accompanied by a compilation of all the inventories relating to the workshop, which were
scattered not only throughout Italy, but also in Europe and the United States of America (pp.
247-249). The other article (“Clemente XI, San Pio V e il trionfo sui Turchi. Un’immagine in-
edita di Santa Maria della Vittoria come Hagiosoritissa dalla bottega Hamerani [1712-1715]”,

Campionario delle medaglie devozionali K. e T. Kühtreiber

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