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1 Ducatone - Scipione Gonzaga
| Issuer | Bozzolo (Italian States) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Value | 1 Ducatone (6) |
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| Obverse description | Armored bust of Scipione Gonzaga facing right, depicted in three-quarter length with elaborately engraved cuirass and pauldrons, the hair short and curled with a pointed beard. The effigy is set within a beaded inner circle, with the circumferential Latin legend interrupted at the base by the Roman numeral IV. The portrait is rendered in a confident Baroque style typical of northern Italian ducatone coinage of the early seventeenth century. |
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| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | · CAES · PRIN · BOZZVLI · SACRIQ · ROM · IMPERI · IV |
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| Additional information |
Bozzolo was a tiny imperial fief in the Lombard plain, and the Gonzaga branch that held it punched well above its political weight in coin production. Scipione Gonzaga — not to be confused with the Cardinal of the same name — issued ducatoni that mimicked the heavyweight silver coinage of Milan and Mantua despite ruling a territory of negligible economic importance. The ducatone itself was a denomination essentially invented by Milan in the sixteenth century to facilitate large-value silver transactions, and minor Gonzaga lordships adopted it partly as a statement of dynastic parity.
Bellesia's corpus on Pico remains the authoritative reference for this branch of the family's coinage.