210, Lot: 366. Estimate $100. Sold for $166. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Medals. Paul III (Alessandro Farnese). 1534-1549. Æ Medal (36mm, 27.83 g, 12h). Dated year 16 (1549). · PAVLVS · III · PONT · MAX · AN · XVI ·, bust left, wearing zucchetto and mantum / RVFINA, view of the Frascati; Villa Rufina above; below, TVSCVLO ·/REST · in two lines. Mazio 53; Lincoln 504; cf. DDL pl. VIII, 2 (obv.) and 3 (rev.). Good VF.

From the Luparello Collection.

One of the few Popes to have fathered children before his election, Paul III was also the first Pope to understand the threat which was posed by the Reformation, on account of which he began a Counter-Reformation. He officially recognized the Jesuits, known as the Society of Jesus and commissioned the painting of the Last Judgment by Michelangelo.