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1 Testone - Innocent XI MELIVS EST DARE QVAM ACCIPERE
| Issuer | Papal States |
|---|---|
| Year | 1685 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | A decorative cartouche of baroque design occupies the central field, its ornamental frame composed of acanthus-leaf scrollwork and foliage flanking both sides, with a studded architectural pediment above and foliate sprays below. Within the cartouche, the pious Latin motto MELIVS EST DARE QVAM ACCIPERE is inscribed in four lines of boldly raised capital letters, with the date 1685 appearing beneath in the lower portion of the tablet. The overall composition is characteristic of the elaborate devotional reverse types favored in Papal coinage of the late seventeenth century, with no peripheral legend, the entire message conveyed through the central inscription alone. |
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| Additional information |
Innocent XI was elected in 1676 under considerable pressure from the French faction, then spent much of his pontificate in open conflict with Louis XIV over the Gallican Articles of 1682, which asserted the French crown's authority over the Roman church. The papal treasury was simultaneously strained by his financial support for the Holy League campaign against the Ottomans — culminating in the relief of Vienna in 1683 — making the motto on this testone, "It is better to give than to receive," a quietly pointed theological statement from a pope who gave a great deal and received very little diplomatic gratitude for it.
Innocent XI was beatified in 1956, one of very few popes whose coinage predates their beatification by nearly three centuries.