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1 Scudo d'Oro - Paul IV
| Issuer | Papal States - Bologna Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1555-1559 |
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| Currency | Scudo (1534-1835) |
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| Obverse description | Central field displays the papal heraldic shield of Pope Paul IV (Gian Pietro Carafa), barry of six, surmounted by the papal tiara and crossed keys of Saint Peter, the symbols of pontifical authority. The shield is set within an ornate cartouche with scrollwork, flanked on either side by the crossed keys with their cords. The circumferential legend in Latin reads PAVLVS IIII PONT MAX, separated by pellet stops, identifying the pontiff as Supreme Pontiff. The die work is characteristic of mid-sixteenth century Italian Renaissance hammered gold coinage. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Giovanni Pietro Carafa was already 79 years old when elected Paul IV in 1555, and his pontificate proved as combative as his temperament. He pursued an aggressively anti-Spanish policy that led to open war with Philip II in 1556–57, a disastrous miscalculation that ended in humiliating papal defeat. The Bologna mint continued striking under his authority throughout this period, though the city itself remained a restive subject of the Papal States, always closer in spirit to its Emilian neighbors than to Rome.
Paul IV is also remembered as the architect of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum's first formal codification and the man who walled Rome's Jewish population into the original ghetto in 1555.