Paul V — born Camillo Borghese — spent much of his pontificate in open conflict with Venice over jurisdictional authority, a dispute that resulted in the republic's interdict of 1606 and a diplomatic crisis that convulsed northern Italy for years. Bologna, as a papal legation rather than an independent state, continued minting under his name throughout the quarrel, its copper small change circulating through a city that was administratively Roman but geographically and commercially oriented toward the Po valley.
The quattrino was the lowest practical denomination in the papal monetary hierarchy, struck in copper specifically for local retail transactions.
Paul V — born Camillo Borghese — spent much of his pontificate in open conflict with Venice over jurisdictional authority, a dispute that resulted in the republic's interdict of 1606 and a diplomatic crisis that convulsed northern Italy for years. Bologna, as a papal legation rather than an independent state, continued minting under his name throughout the quarrel, its copper small change circulating through a city that was administratively Roman but geographically and commercially oriented toward the Po valley.
The quattrino was the lowest practical denomination in the papal monetary hierarchy, struck in copper specifically for local retail transactions.