GERMANY. Magdeburg (Erzbistum). Albrecht IV von Brandenburg, 1513-1545. Medal 1526 (Silver, 28 mm, 11.05 g, 11 h). DOMINVS MIHI ADIVTOR•QVE[M] TIMEBO! ANN AETAT XXXVI Draped bust of Albrecht IV von Brandenburg to right. Rev. ALBERT•CARD•MOG•ARCHIEP•MAGD•HALB•AD[M]•MARCH•BRAND•ZC•MDXXVI• Coat of arms set on crosier, sword and crossbar; above, bishop’s hat. Habich 924. Lanna 797 (this piece). Menadier (Schaumünzen) 11. An extremely rare original contemporary cast with beautiful old cabinet toning. Pierced, otherwise, good very fine.



Albrecht IV, Margrave of Brandenburg, Bishop of Halberstadt, and Archbishop of Magdeburg, was among the most important patrons of medallic art in the German Renaissance. Alongside Hans Schwarz, Christoph Weiditz, and Hans Reinhart the Elder, he also commissioned the gifted Nuremberg die engraver Matthes Gebel (circa 1500-1574) to produce this medal. A cast of the piece is set into the gable field of Albert’s sarcophagus plate.

Original casts, such as the present specimen from the collections of Baron Adalbert von Lanna (1836-1909) and Albrecht Ritter von Kubinzky von Hohenkubin (1885-1972), are extremely rare. One particularly intriguing detail is the punctuation in the obverse legend: the ‘DOMINVS MIHI ADIVTOR QVEM TIMEBO!’ (‘The Lord is my helper; whom shall I fear!’ in English). The exclamation point here is among the earliest recorded uses of the mark in Germany, and in this instance it even merges the question mark and exclamation point into a kind of proto-interrobang.