A silver gilt medallion commemorating Saint Elisabeth

A silver gilt medallion commemorating Saint Elisabeth

The front of the piece with a half-length portrait of the queen wearing a crown and veil and facing left, surrounded by a gallery of 17 round arches with foliate terminals and the inscription: “ELISABETA. FILIA. ANDRE. REG. UNGAR. OBIIT. MARB. AN. MCCXXXI”. The reverse with a depiction of the church of Saint Elisabeth in Marburg surrounded by a gallery of 17 round arches with foliate terminals and the inscription: “DISPERSIT. DEDIT. PAUP. IUST: EIUS: MANET: IN: SECUL: SECULI”. With a rare stamp “ICS” below the church spire. Unmarked. D 5.1 cm, weight 14 g.
Attributed to Prague, circa 1619.

This extensive series of pseudo-medieval medals, long known as "Jew medals" because of their alleged production by Jewish minters in Prague, glorified the ancestors of the House of Habsburg. This specimen bears a portrait of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231), the wife of Louis IV of Thuringia. The reverse shows the great Church of Saint Elisabeth in Marburg, whose construction began in 1235 to coincide with the canonization of the saint. It is one of the earliest Gothic churches in Germany.

Literature

A further example housed in the Wien Museum, inv. no. 7017 (in: Verzeichniss der Münz- und Medaillen-Sammlung des kaiserl. königl. Hofrathes und Mitgliedes mehrerer gelehrten Gesellschaften, Herrn Leopold Welzl von Wellenheim, II./I., Vienna 1844, cat. no. 78).