Italia, Lucca. Repubblica (dopo 1450). Grosso da 3

LUCCA Republic (after 1450) Large 3 bol. (g. 2. 11) . SANCTVS VVLTVS DE LVCA, Front Holy Face in a four-lobed frame; below, Balbani cabinet R / + CAROLVS IMPERATOR, LVCA cross letters around a four-lobed rosette. Bellesia 9 / B; CNI 77/85. MIR 156. AR RARE On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante's death (1265-1321) , Catawiki is dedicating an auction to the Supreme Poet focused on the coins of his time and on those related to the characters of his Divine Comedy. # dante700memorial DANTE AND LUCCA In the fifth bedlam the souls of the barterers, that is of those who derive an illicit personal profit from a public office, are punished by being immersed in boiling pitch. A devil has just thrown one of these into it, "an elder of Santa Zita", a magistrate from Lucca identified by the commentator Guido da Pisa as a certain Martino Bottaio. The damned, returning to the surface, re-emerges with his head and at that point the devils The damned must therefore not show his face as is done in Lucca, when the so-called Holy Face is exhibited, a Byzantine crucifix of black wood, object of great veneration of the Lucca faithful of the time and still preserved in the basilica of San Martino, nor keep the head out of the pitch, as the people of Lucca still keep their heads out of the water when they swim in the Serchio river. [1] A different explanation is given by the ancient commentator Francesco da Buti: "it can be understood that he, having come back up, said: - Holy Face, help me - and therefore the demons answered in this way [. . .] - Get yourself out to see your Santo Volto da Lucca, and call him because he helps you? Here no, it does not take place "and Dante would thus make a mockery of" the people of Lucca, who constantly speak their Holy Face ".