LEONI, Leone
(b. 1509, Menaggio, d. 1590, Milano)

Ferrante Gonzaga, Count of Guastalla (front side)

1555-56
Lead, diameter 76 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ferrante I Gonzaga, Count of Guastalla (1507-1557) was an Italian condottiero, a member of the House of Gonzaga and the founder of the branch of the Gonzaga of Guastalla. At the age of sixteen he was sent to the court of Spain as a page to the future emperor Charles V, to whom Ferrante remained faithful for his whole life. In 1527 he took part in the Sack of Rome and attended Charles's triumphant coronation at Bologna in 1530; at the death of Charles of Bourbon (1527) he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Imperial army in Italy. He became a Knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1531.

Inscription: (in margin) FER[rante].GONZ[aga].PRAEF[ectus].GAL[liae].CISAL[pinae].TRIB[unus].MAX[imus].LEGG[ionis].CAROLI.V.CAES[aris]AVG[ustus] [trans.: Ferrante Gonzaga, prefect of Cisalpine Gaul, Chief Tribune of the legion of Charles the fifth the August.]




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