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Gigliato - Deodatus of Gozon

Issuer Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitaller)
Year 1346-1353
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Value Gigliato (1)
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Obverse description The Grand Master Deodatus of Gozon is depicted in full figure, kneeling to the left in robes adorned with a cross, his head turned to face the viewer, in a devotional posture before a patriarchal cross mounted on a stepped base. The cross is rendered with fine detail at center-left of the field, emphasizing the religious character of the issue. A beaded inner circle frames the central design, separating it from the surrounding uncial Latin legend. The overall composition is characteristic of the Hospitaller gigliato series, reflecting the Gothic artistic conventions of the mid-fourteenth century.
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Reverse description A bold cross fleury occupies the center of the field, its four arms terminating in stylized fleur-de-lis flourishes, each enclosing a small crosslet-charged shield at the terminal of each arm. The design is contained within a beaded inner circle, beyond which an uncial Latin legend encircles the coin. The execution is crisp and confident, consistent with the established Hospitaller coinage tradition for Rhodes, and the cross fleury device serves as the heraldic emblem of the Order throughout the gigliato series.
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Deodatus of Gozon served as Grand Master from 1346 to 1353, a tenure defined largely by the aftermath of the Order's joint crusade with Venice and Cyprus against the Turks — the campaign that seized Smyrna in 1344, just two years before his election. The gigliato itself was a Neapolitan type adopted wholesale by the Hospitallers after they established themselves on Rhodes, a pragmatic choice that kept the coinage recognizable across Levantine trade networks already familiar with the Angevin original.

Gozon is best remembered in legend as the slayer of a dragon on Rhodes — almost certainly a later embellishment — but his actual administrative record shows a Master focused on consolidating the Order's naval position rather than terrestrial adventures.

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