SPANISH NETHERLANDS - BELGIUM. Brussels. Alessandro Farnese, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro, 1545-1578-1586-1592. Medal (Silver, 38 mm, 17.88 g, 12 h), an original cast of exceptional quality, by Giuliano Giannini (fl. 1560 - ✝︎ 1599), on Farnese's capture of Maastricht in 1579, Brussels, circa 1586-1592. ALEXANDER•PAR•PLAC•DVX•III•ET•CT• Bare-headed and draped bust of Farnese to right; below bust, IVLIANO•FE. Rev.INVITVS•INVITOS• (=I destroyed them against my will, and certainly against their's or, more simply, reluctantly ⟨destroyed⟩ the unwilling) View of the siege of Maastricht; below the ramparts, MAESTREHC. Cf. Pollard, Bargello, 783 (but bronze). TV, XVI, 1643. Van Loon (French) I, p. 265, ii = Van Loon (English) I, p. 215, 1579-11. Very rare. A splendid example, beautifully toned and with a superb portrait. Extremely fine.

From the collection of a Bon Vivant.

The enigmatic reverse inscription tells us that Farnese, who was Spain's great commander in the early part of the Eighty Years War against the Protestant Dutch (he was governor from 1578 to 1592), was unwilling to attack the city of Maastricht, but did so, reluctantly, because the city was unwilling to submit. While this medal commemorates the city's fall to Farnese's forces in 1579, since it bears his Ducal titles, which he only received in 1586, it can only have been issued after that date, and prior to his death in 1592.