1 Ducat - Paul II

Paul II — born Pietro Barbo, a Venetian merchant's nephew — was elected in 1464 and immediately clashed with the humanist scholars of the Roman Academy, eventually dissolving the organization entirely in 1468 on charges of paganism and conspiracy. The Bologna mint operated under papal authority during his reign as a contested arrangement; Bologna had long resisted direct papal control, and the city's coinage rights were a recurring flashpoint between civic pride and Roman administration.

Ducats of this type follow the Venetian standard Paul would have known intimately from his youth, a lineage traceable to the Zecchino established in Venice in 1284.