Abstract

Amongst Anton Francesco Doni's only partially completed projects, the "Medaglie" is one of special interest. The three editions of Doni's "Medaglie" (two printed in Venice in 1550, one with no publishing information) were published as samples of a book which was constantly promoted as being far more extensive. This paper aims to contextualize the reasons and objectives of Doni's project, by analysing the particular conception of the medal expressed in some of his texts, from the "Lettere" to the "Marmi" and the "Mondi", up until the "Nova opinione sopra le imprese amorose e militari". The "alchemy" medal which portrays his enemy Lodovico Domenichi shows the role of genuine and "false Medaglie" within a complex "system" which shares important points of contact with the "Libraria" (1550) and the "Giornale de' debitori e creditori", another work which was never realized.