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a halo surrounding his head. The medal’s reverse, on the opposite side of the engraving, shows
Martellange’s design for the façade of Saint-Louis-des-Jésuites. In the lower left corner the
obverse of the second medal presents a profile portrait of Louis XIII dressed in armor with a
large ruff and a sash, typical of contemporary state portraits. 26 Each of the images is
accompanied by an inscription, which will be addressed below. The reverse of the portrait of
Louis XIII bears no image, but simply consists of Latin text, which reads: “To God all powerful
and great—Louis XIII dedicated this building to St. Louis in the year 1627 in order to have as a
protector in heaven the founder of his race, of his name, and of his kingdom.” 27
The tradition of casting medals for placement in the foundations of new buildings began
in the fifteenth century, with the earliest known example being Matteo dei Pasti’s 1454 medal of
San Francesco in Rimini. 28 Pasti’s medal depicts a profile portrait of the patron Sigismondo
Malatesta on the obverse with Alberti’s initial design for the façade of the church on the reverse
(fig. 37). Subsequent examples followed the same pattern, such as Julius II’s foundation medal
for Saint Peter’s designed in 1506 by Caradosso Foppa, featuring Bramante’s exterior design for
the basilica. Although the Roman Catholic rite for the blessing of th foundation stone did not
require medals, by the seventeenth century it was customary to include them as a means of
commemorating the event.
The use of medals to celebrate construction of a new church was also a feature at Jesuit
foundations. In 1568 Cardinal Alessandro Farnese commissioned G. Bonsegni to create a
foundation medal to commemorate the start of construction on the Gesù, the Jesuit mother
church for which he was the patron. 29 Like other foundation medals, it showed a profile portrait
of Cardinal Farnese on the obverse with Giacomo da Vignola’s design for the façade on the
reverse (fig. 38). The fact that the Gesù’s patron, rather than the superior general of the society,
was the one to commission a medal to commemorate the event provided a precedent for future
Jesuit churches.
Although documentary evidence revealing the person responsible for commissioning the
medals for Saint-Louis-des-Jésuites is lacking, tradition dictates that it was Louis XIII. In France
the ruling monarch used medals to commemorate royal occasions and major events; foundation
medals for works connected to the king certainly fell within this realm. 30 King Charles IX
(1560-1574) and his mother Queen Catherine de’ Medici were the first French leaders to
commemorate such an event when in 1566 they placed medals bearing their portraits in the
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