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The E-Sylum: Volume 29, Number 14, 2026, Article 19

ANS ANNOUNCES RENAISSANCE MEDALS ONLINE

A new online resource for Renaissance medals has been announced by the American Numismatic Society. -Editor

  Renaissance-Medals-Online banner

The ANS is pleased to announce the launch of Renaissance Medals Online (RMO), a new, open-source research tool focused on the beginnings of medallic art in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The resource gathers known specimens of medals from both public and private collections, as well as from publications, including old catalogues and auction records. RMO is the result of an international collaboration between Agnieszka Smolucha-Sladkowska (Curator of Medals at the numismatic cabinet of the National Museum in Kraków), Ethan Gruber (ANS Director of Data Science), Peter van Alfen (ANS Chief Curator), and Karsten Dahmen (Deputy Director of the Coin Cabinet, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin).

  1450 bronze condottieri medal

The first component of RMO, the Condottieri Medals (CM) typology, focuses on medals related to the condottieri, or Italian mercenary leaders. These medals constitute a significant group of the earliest Renaissance medals of the fifteenth century. The database consists of more than 100 medallic types, based on the standard catalogue of Italian Renaissance Medals, A Corpus of Italian Medals of the Renaissance Before Cellini by George Francis Hill (1930).

  1486 lead condotierri medal with the bust of Carlo Grati

The CM typology accompanies Medals of Condottieri in Quattrocento Italy: The Art of Aspiration, by Smolucha-Sladkowska (Routledge, 2026), with the online typology and catalogue of the condottieri medals found in RMO serving as a key resource for the study. The book seeks to answer why military leaders were interested in having these medals made, exploring motivations such as vanity, propaganda, and commemoration, and discusses the functions, significance, and artistic issues, as well as the goals sought by patrons and their advisers through the medium. The timeframe adopted for the catalogue covers ca. 1438 to 1495, spanning the period from the first Renaissance medal to the battle of Fornovo, which ended the golden age of the condottieri system.The current contributors to this resource include the American Numismatic Society, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Münzkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and the British Museum. For more information about RMO, visit numismatics.org/cm.

To read the complete article, see:
Now Live: Renaissance Medals Online (https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/now-live-renaissance-medals-online/)



Wayne Homren, Editor

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To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

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