300 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
XLVIII.—Descriprion or a Larcr Srtver Prague, ComMEMORATIVE 
oF Martin Luruer ar Wirrenserc, 4. pd. 1517. By WittiaM 
Frazer, F.R.C.S.1., M.R.I. A. 
[Read, June 9, 1884. ] 
A SLIGHT acquaintance with the subject will serve to explain the spe- 
cial interest taken by persons who devote their attention to numismatic 
and medallic pursuits, in that earlier class of medals and plaques cast 
or struck during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Such medals 
are of importance to the historian, for they record events considered of 
sufficient value by their fabricators to be transmitted in an indestruc- 
tible form to succeeding ages; and they are likewise, as a rule, works 
of decided artistic excellence, the outcome of a period and of men whose 
achievements in every department, whether literature, art, or state- 
craft, were remodeling ancient modes of thought, and laying the foun- 
dations of all our subsequent advance in human knowledge. When 
portraits are represented, they preserve reliable likenesses of distin- 
guished individuals, of many of whom no other record equally faithful 
is obtainable; and whenever the artist has designed a picture of the 
passing events of his time, or has developed some imaginary, perhaps 
complimentary, mythologic scene, still the grace and boldness of his 
design and the successful mode of its execution impart to these small 
pictures in metal features as well deserving of careful study and ap- 
preciation as the larger and better known efforts of the painter upon 
his broad canvas. Nor will the collector value them less because they 
have to be diligently sought for: like rare gems, they hold their 
price ; and of late years so rapidly has the price increased that their 
acquisition can only be hoped for at considerable pecuniary cost. 
Of these early medals, the special class relating to Luther and the 
times of the Reformation are few in number, and proportionally es- 
teemed. To make this fact intelligible we must bear in mind that 
‘‘the art of medal engraving had only reached Germany a few years 
before Luther began to make his name known as a Reformer. It was 
still a very costly process, and confined altogether to the service of the 
great. This accounts for the fact that we have only four contempo- 
rary medals of Luther and other actors in the Reformation, excepting 
those of a more exalted rank, such as Pope Leo X., the Emperor 
Charles V., Henry VIII. of England, and the Electors of Saxony.’ So 
writes Mr. C. F. Keary in his introductory observations upon the series 
of medals which were exhibited in connexion with the Luther Exhibi- 
tion in 1883, held in the Grenville Library, at the British Museum. 
These few remarks will serve to explain the reasons why I am de- 
sirous of recording the existence of a large-sized medallic plaque com- 
memorative of Luther and the commencement of the Reformation, 
which appears to be possibly contemporaneous with the event it re- 
