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1 Soldo 'Virgilio'
| Issuer | Duchy of Mantua |
|---|---|
| Year | 1627-1637 |
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| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
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| Obverse description | Five-line inscription within a circle, surmounted by a rose flanked by two small globes. The legend surrounds the central lettered field, presenting the full ducal titulature of Carlo I Gonzaga-Nevers in Latin abbreviation. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The 'Virgilio' soldo takes its name from the poet Virgil, who was born near Mantua and claimed by the Gonzaga as a symbol of ducal prestige for centuries. This issue spans one of the most catastrophic decades in Mantua's history: the War of the Mantuan Succession broke out in 1628, drawing in France, Spain, and the Empire, and culminating in the sack of Mantua by Imperial troops in 1630 — one of the most brutal urban destructions of the Thirty Years' War. The city lost perhaps a third of its population to violence and plague in that single year.
That any civic coinage continued through this period at all reflects the administrative persistence of a duchy that effectively ceased to function as an independent power shortly after.