FLOOR. J 
KING'S LIBRARY. 
65 
current throughout the civilized world during that particular 
century or period, the whole forming a series of historically 
successive tableaux. 
The individual specimens are separately labelled and num- 
bered in each of the 21 divisions, the numbers referring to 
the Guide to this portion of the Exhibition (now in 
preparation) where full descriptions and explanations are 
given. 
The Table-Cases C to K contain a selection of the finest 
and most interesting medals in the National Collection, 
Italian, German, French, Dutch, and English. 
The Medal had its origin under the Roman Empire, although 
the Greeks in some cases struck coins of a medallic character 
intended to record events. The Roman Emperors issued a 
•series of types, especially in their " large brass " money, 
the reverses of which are a gazette of the events of history. 
They invented the Medal in striking large and more care- 
fully executed pieces, which had no fixed value in metal, and 
bore the portrait of an imperial personage with a reverse type 
recording an event of his reign or otherwise personally com- 
memorative. This art did not survive the fall of the Western 
Empire and revived with the Renaissance. 
Italy, the leader in the revival of arts and letters, first 
restored the Medal. It is probably not a coincidence that the 
oldest Italian Medal was cast in 1390 in honour of Francesco 
Carrara, Lord of Padua, the friend of Petrarch, himself one 
of the earliest collectors of Roman coins. The finest Italian 
works are of the middle and latter part of the fifteenth cen- 
tury. Subsequently medal casting and striking gradually 
fell into the hands of inferior artists, and, however historically 
interesting, is rarely a worthy measure of contemporary painting 
and sculpture in Italy. There are few works of any merit 
after the middle of the seventeenth century. 
Examples are here given, including leaden proofs of the early 
Italian medals, classed accord ing to the masters. The first 
group is by Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), A.D. cir. 1380-1 451, 
the Veronese painter, the true founder of modern medal 
engraving, Sperandio (1447-1528), Matteo Pasti, Fra Antonio 
da Brescia, and Niccolo of Florence. In Pisano's works the 
