1 INTRODUCTION

Medallion

'The bronze medallion was made for Rannusio in 1555, togeth—
er with a pendant likeness of Navagero, and set up on the arch
of the Porta San Benedetto at Padua, near the bridge. It was
executed by G. dal Cavino of Padua, a goldsmith and die—
cutter who became notorious for his forgeries of Roman coins
which he sold as genuine antiques. Since this medallion was
approved by Rannusio, it is probably the best likeness of Fra—
castorius that we have. Rannusio set up both medallions on
an antique Roman altar that had been brought from Salona
in Dalmatia. On this marble base is a Latin inscription stating
that it was erected at Salona as an altar to Jupiter.I The
medallions are now in the Museo Civico at Padua. 'This would
not have pleased Rannusio, who placed them where the Univer—
sity students, as they went to their lectures, might be inspired
by the sight of these two friends who had been fellow—students
there. But at any rate they hung there for more than three
centuries, these two literary Pagans, adorning the altar of Jupiter
whom in their poems they had often confused with the Hebrew
Deity.  Only second in interest to the medallion of Fracastorius,
is the portrait which was published in 1538 as the frontispiece
to Homocentrica; i$ is reproduced in the present volume from &
print furnished by Professor Capparoni of Rome.

:'The whole monument is described by Mommsen, in Corpus
Inscriptionum Latinarum Vol. III. 1. p. 306, under No. 1933. He
says that it was dedicated to Jupiter at Salona in 137 A. D. in the
reign of Hadrian, that it was presented to Rannusio by friends and
he kept it in his garden at Venice for several years; when he repaired
the gate near the Ponte San Benedetto, Padua in 1555, he restored
the missing part of the altar, and placed it, adorned with the two
medallions, over the gate, so high up that Mommsen, who saw it
there about 1870, found it difficult to read the part of the original
inscription that remained. He gives the whole text from certain
MSS. in which it had been preserved. 'This monument, with the
medallions, is roughly and indistinctly reproduced as the frontis—
piece to Rannusio's edition of Fracastorius, 1555. From the photo—
graph of the medallion of Fracastorius (see Frontispiece) which
was made for me by the Museo Civico, Padua, the letters of his
name, which in the original, encircle the medallion, have been
omitted; they have no beauty, and rather spoil the effect of the
portrait. / A reproduction, with the lettering, on the cover of Annal/s
of Medical. History, I. 1917, is, unfortunately, a distortion of the
original, so far as the likeness is concerned.