Germany, uncertain medallist (1520), Leopold de Jordanis (rector and professor of medicine at Vienna University), bronze uniface medal, 1520, LEOPOLDVS DE IORDANIS ARTIS MEDICE PROFESSOR MDXX, bust left wearing flat hat and cape, 56mm (unrecorded), contemporary cast, extremely fine with brown patina, apparently unique

Provenance: Luc Smolderen collection, Künker auction 282, 28 September 2016, lot 4836 (part, not described).Leopold de Jordanis was rector of the University of Vienna in 1518-19 and again in 1536-37 and dean of the Medical Faculty five times in 1519, 1527, 1530, 1533 and 1537. He died in the summer of 1537 while still rector and dean. As part of his duties, he wrote the entries in the Acta Facultatis Medicae and his handwriting is preserved there, held in the archives of the university. As to the authorship of the medal, the lettering which is very sharp and has the appearance of having been punched into the mould (rather than being part of the model as was usual) was a method employed by Hans Schwarz. But in 1520 Hans Schwarz was apparently in Nuremberg and thereafter in Speyer, Worms and Heidelberg but not in Vienna. Moreover, the wavy truncation of the bust is unlike Schwarz's own style.

Estimate: GBP 1500 - 2000