Muraiola of 2 Baiocchi - Clement XI Pastoral opened

Clement XI's pontificate was defined almost entirely by war. The War of the Spanish Succession placed him in an impossible diplomatic position, and his decision to support the French Bourbon claim ultimately provoked Emperor Joseph I to invade and occupy the Papal States in 1708 — the very period this coin was struck at Ferrara. The Imperial occupation forced Clement into humiliating concessions, including the formal recognition of the Habsburg claimant to the Spanish throne.

Ferrara had been a papal possession only since 1598, when it reverted to the Holy See upon the extinction of the Este line. The mint there was active but secondary, which accounts for the relative scarcity of dated varieties from this two-year window.