THE saluto d’oro (Figure 1) and thesaluto d’argento (Figure 2) of Charles

I, king of Naples and Sicily (1266 – 1285AD) are considered to be among the mostbeautiful coins from the Middle Ages.On the reverse of these coins there is awonderful Annunciation scene: the angelGabriel stands with his wings spread outwhile he announces (annunciates) to theVirgin Mary that she has been blessedby God.‘Saluto’ in Italian means ‘greeting’, and

it refers to Gabriel’s first words to Mary,“AVE GRACIA PLENA DOMINUSTECUM”, which is the Latin legend onthe reverse of the coin. The legend means,“Hail, (you who are) full of grace. TheLord (is) with you.” This is verse 28 inthe first chapter in Luke’s Gospel. Thetypes continued unchanged into the reignof Charles’ son, Charles II (1285 – 1309).His coins differ from those of his fatherby having SCD (secundus) in his title onthe obverse, and on the reverse Gabriel

seems to be hovering in the air and hisclenched left hand, which holds a fleur-de-lis (lily flower), is not visible. Only thefleur-de-lis is shown (Figures 3, 4 and 5).Charles I had previously issued a gold

coin called a reale d’oro (Figure 6). On

the obverse there was a crowned bust ofCharles with a fleur-de-lis in the leftfield, and on the reverse his heraldicshield covered with fleurs-de-lis. Charleswas the brother of Louis IX, king ofFrance, and the fleur-de-lis was theemblem of the French royal family. It wasbelieved that Clovis, the founder of theFrankish kingdom, took the lily as thesymbol of his baptism in c. 493. Being awhite flower it represented purity. In 1277 Charles acquired the title of

king of Jerusalem. He bought his claimto the kingdom from Maria, princess ofAntioch. She was the daughter of thehalf-sister of Maria, the wife of John ofBrienne, who had been king of Jeru-salem. Although the claim was tenuousand doubtful, Charles took full advan-tage of it. New coinage was requiredto proclaim his new title and to displaythe coat of arms of Jerusalem. The rev-erse should be a new type indicating hisChristian piety and his link, throughtwo women called Mary, to the Holy Land.Also it needed to be something that

The Annunciation Coin of Charles I, Kingof Naples and Sicilyby Peter E. Lewis

Castel dell’Ovo. The mint was in the castle. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 1 – Saluto d’oro of Charles I of Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily. It is of gold (d’oro)and is 21 mms in diameter. The obverse legend is + KAROL’ DEI GRA IERL’M SICILIEREX (Charles, by the grace of God, king of Jerusalem and Sicily). (Triton XII, Lot 1020)

Figure 2 – Saluto d’argento of Charles I of Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily. It is of silver(d’argento) and is 24 mms in diameter. The obverse legend is + KAROL IERL ET SICILREX. One saluto d’oro was worth ten saluti d’argento. (Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG,Auction 217, Lot 2740)

would please the pope, who was a majorpower in Italian politics. His choice of anAnnunciation scene could not have beenmore appropriate for his purposes. Who designed the new reverse? Con-

cerning the saluto d’oro, G.W. de Wit, aspecialist in medieval coinage, wrote ina catalogue of his coins (‘The De Wit Coll-ection of Medieval Coins’, Fritz RudolfKünker GmbH & Co. KG, 11th March2008), “This is one of the most beautifulof all 13th century coins and its design wascarried out under the personal supervis-ion of Charles I himself. He establisheda new mint in the Castel dell’ovo in 1278,using craftsmen from the old mints ofBrindisi and Messina, under the direc-tion of a Florentine moneyer, FrancescoFormica. The die engraver was GiovanniFortino.” All the accounts mention

Giovanni Fortino. None mentions NicolaPisano who was the leading sculptor inItaly at the time. Nicola originally camefrom a region that was later part ofCharles’ kingdom because in two docu-ments of 1266 he is called ‘Master Nicolafrom Apulia’. He must have left the regionbefore 1260 because his masterpiece,the pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery, issigned by him and dated 1260. Charleshad allied himself with the papacy toconquer southern Italy and Sicily, defeat-ing Manfred and Conradin, the last of theHohenstaufen dynasty, at Benevento in1266 and Tagliacozzo in 1268. It is there-fore possible that Nicola had worked insouthern Italy for the Hohenstaufenfamily, and Charles may not have wantedhim involved in his new artistic venture. Nicola’s pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery is amazing (Figure 7). It is hexagonal with

five marble panels, the sixth side beingthe entrance. The first panel has theAnnunciation, the Nativity, the Bathof Jesus and the Annunciation to theshepherds. The second panel has theEpiphany. The third has the Presentationin the Temple. The fourth has the Cruci-fixion, and the fifth, the Last Judgment. Like all the art of this period Nicola’s

largely derived from earlier work, espec-ially Classical Greco-Roman sculpture,and there was considerable influencefrom the art of the Orthodox Christiansto the east, just across the strait ofOtranto. In the first panel (Figure 8) thedominant figure is a woman recliningon a couch with three people in front ofher: a bearded man and two womenbathing a baby in a basin. This scene wascopied from a common Orthodox iconcalled ‘The Birth of the Virgin’ (Figure 9).In the icon the reclining woman is Anna,the mother of Mary, and the man isJoachim, her husband. The two womenare nurses bathing the baby Mary. InNicola’s panel the baby has a penis, andthe scene must therefore be re-interpretedas the bathing of the baby Jesus. In the upper left corner of the panel

there is an Annunciation scene. Thefigures of Gabriel and Mary facing eachother had previously appeared in Ortho-

Figure 3 – Saluto d’oro of Charles II of Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily. The obverse legend is+ KAROL SCD DEI GRA IERL’ SICIL’ REX. It is 22 mms in diameter. (CNG Auction 72, Lot 2372)

Figure 4 – Saluto d’argento of Charles II ofAnjou, king of Naples and Sicily. The obverselegend is + KAROL SCD IERL’ ET SICIL’REX. It is 25 mms in diameter. (Collection ofSt John’s Cathedral, Brisbane)

Figure 5 – Saluto d’argento of Charles II with colour added.

dox icons of the Annunciation (Figure10). In the icon Gabriel’s right arm isstretched out, but his left hand is ratherawkwardly placed in front of his ab-domen. Even the pediment between theheads of Gabriel and Mary had previouslyappeared in Orthodox icons (Figure 11).

It indicated that Mary was on the porchof a building when Gabriel flew downfrom heaven. On the panel the upper partof Gabriel’s left wing looks like a cabbageobscuring the left corner of the pediment. The Annunciation had previously

appeared in Italian art: a mosaic in Sta

Figure 6 – Reale d’oro of Charles I of Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily. The obverse legend is+ KAROL DEI GRA. The reverse legend is + REX SICILIE. (CNG Auction 85, Lot 1400)

Figure 7 – The Pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery. It was made by Nicola Pisano. (Wikimedia Commons)

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Maria Maggiore in Rome shows Maryseated and spinning thread while Gab-riel stands on her left. It dates from the5th century.When Nicola’s Annunciation is inspec-

ted more closely (Figure 12) it is obviousthat the Annunciation on Charles’ coinhas been derived from it. Firstly, Gabriel’sangular left wing fits the shape of thepediment nicely. Looking up at the ped-iment it is easy to imagine Gabriel’soutstretched wing in its place. His unus-ual hairstyle, with an upper level shapedlike a dome, is exactly the same onCharles’ coin. It can be seen in a frontalview (Figure 13). In the two icons ofthe Annunciation (Figures 10 and 11)

Gabriel’s hairstyle is different. AlthoughGabriel’s right hand has broken off inthe panel it would have been similar tothat on the coin. In the panel the fingerson Gabriel’s left hand suggest the shapeof a fleur-de-lis, and the rest of the handbecomes the clenched hand that holdsthe fleur-de-lis on the coin. As previouslymentioned, the clenched hand is notshown on the coins of Charles II, only thefleur-de-lis. On both the panel and thecoin Mary’s head is tilted to her right;and on the panel, below her right wrist analmond-shaped object can be seen. Thisis a tool for spinning thread (There wasa legend that Mary was one of the virginsweaving a veil for the Temple), but onthe coin it becomes Mary’s raised lefthand. In the panel the space between

Figure 8 – The first and second panels in the pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery. (Wikimedia Commons)

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Figure 9 – ‘The Birth of the Virgin’. Russianicon, Palekh School, 19th century. There aretwo nurses bathing the baby Mary in the fore-ground and two attending to Anna, who lies ona couch. Joachim is sitting to the right. (Imagecourtesy of the Temple Gallery, London)

Figure 10 – ‘The Annunciation’. Russian icon,Novgorod, 12th century. Gabriel seems to hoverin the air, a feature also seen on the saluti ofCharles II. (Wikimedia Commons)

Gabriel and Mary is partly filled by oneof the nurses, but on the coin there is abunch of lilies. On the coin at the bottomof the composition there is a vase holdingthe lilies, and in the panel there is a vase-

shaped bowl for washing Jesus. On thesaluti d’argento the vase has handles. The lily had long been recognized as

representing purity and as a symbol ofthe Virgin Mary. In fact it had beenpainted on the tombs of virgins in thecatacombs in Rome. Also, a vase madeof glass, being translucent, representedpurity. On Charles’ coin the fleur-de-lisis next to the highest lily in the vase.This indicated Charles’ closeness to

the Virgin Mary in his devotion and tothe Holy Land in his sovereignty ofJerusalem. The similarities between Nicola’s

Annunciation and the Annunciation onCharles’ coin are striking. Someone in-volved in the design of the coin, probablyGiovanni Fortino, must have gone to Pisa

Figure 11 – ‘The Annunciation’. An icon in StCatherine’s Monastery, 13th century. Gabrielhas actually landed on the ground andstands as he does on the saluti of Charles I.(Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 12 – Detail of the first panel in thepulpit in the Pisa Baptistery.

Figure 13 – Frontal view of the detail of thefirst panel in the pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery.

Figure 14 – Detail of a panel in the pulpit in Sant’ Andrea Church, Pistoia. The pulpit was made by Giovanni Pisano. Image: Pisano, Giovanni(c. 1248-1314): Pulpit - detail (Nativity). (1) Pistoia, Church of Sant'Andrea. © 2013. Photo Scala, Florence

to see Nicola’s famous pulpit. Using hisimagination and aware of Charles’ needs,he conceived the outline of the coin’sAnnunciation scene when he looked upat Nicola’s panel.

Nicola died in 1284, but he had a son,Giovanni, who was also a sculptor. Hewas commissioned to make the pulpit inthe Sant’ Andrea Church in Pistoia nearFlorence (Figure 14). He worked on it

from about 1293 to 1301. Although theAnnunciation scene is like his father’s,there are features which make it verydifferent from that on Charles’ coin.Gabriel’s left wing clashes with the irreg-ular architecture behind it. His armsare folded tightly across his chest. Thespace between him and Mary is partlyfilled by his knees, indicating that he isabout to kneel before the Virgin who isalready looking down. The nurse isbending forward putting her fingers inthe bathwater making sure it is not toohot. The basin has been moved to theright and is quite separate from theAnnunciation scene. It is not possible tosee Charles’ coin in Giovanni’s sculpture.Weighing up all the evidence it seemsvery likely that the Annunciations ofNicola and Charles are connected. Fortino must have been aware of

Nicola’s pulpit. The idea of changing thebathing basin into a vase of flowersmight have come from the Roman coinsof Hadrian that show a vase between akneeling and a standing figure (Figure15). Notice the wing (actually part of acloak) and the outstretched right arm ofthe kneeling figure. A pious Italian ofthe 13th century would have interpretedthis image as an Annunciation scene. InGiovanni Pisano’s panel Gabriel is aboutto kneel and in later Italian paintings heis kneeling before the Virgin with a vasebetween them (Figure 16). The vase onCharles’ coin could well have been derivedfrom Hadrian’s coin, but the design onCharles’ coin fills the circular space anda kneeling figure would not have beensuitable. The mint for the coins of Charles I and

his son was in the Castel dell’Ovo (Fig-ure 17), which stood on a small island inthe Bay of Naples. It was called Casteldell’Ovo (Castle of the Egg) becauseaccording to legend the Roman poet Virgilput a magic egg in its foundations. Theegg certainly worked its magic in thecastle in the 13th century because thebeautiful coin that was made there hascast a spell on numismatists ever since.Dr de Wit, previously mentioned for his

large collection of medieval coins andhis expertise in the subject, knew nothingof numismatics until he visited Italy,became fascinated with medieval art andbought a saluto d’oro. That coin was thebeginning of his collection. Charles’Annunciation still touches us today, andit is good that Nicola’s part in the designhas been recognized.

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Figure 15 – Sestertius of Hadrian showing Achaia kneeling before him. Sear 3627 (c. 136 AD).There is also an aureus and an as in the series. (Stack’s Bowers and Ponterio Sale 173,11th January 2013, lot 5277)

Figure 16 – ‘The Annunciation’ by Fra Carnevale (1425 – 1484). (Wikimedia Commons)

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