Parma. Pierluigi Farnese, 1503-1547. Medal (Bronze, 36.5 mm, 20.67 g.), undated but 1546 by Gian Federico Bonzagni. P LOYSIVS F PARM ET PLAC DVX I, Bearded bust of the Duke, wearing elaborately decorated armor right. Rev. AD CIVITAT DI TIONISQ TVTEL MVNIM EX TRVCTVM, Citadel of Parma. Armand I, 222, 6. Hill 103. Hill-Pollard 70, 375. Kress 375. Johnson-Martini 97,913. Toderi-Vannel 2124. Extremely Fine contemporary cast.

The medal was produced in 1546 for the construction of the citadel of Parma, commissioned by Pierluigi Farnese, but then designed and begun in 1591 by Alessandro Farnese.

Pierluigi Farnese was the first Duke of Castro (1537–1545) and the first Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1545–1547), illegitimate son of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, later Pope Paul III. Initially a soldier of often brutal reputation who took part in the 1527 Sack of Rome, he rose rapidly thanks to his father’s favor, becoming gonfaloniere of the Church and consolidating Farnese power in central Italy. His authoritarian rule,the hostility from local nobility and the opposition of Emperor Charles V led to a conspiracy in which he was assassinated at Piacenza in 1547.