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.
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.