Undeciphered document (1)

There exist many unexplained documents and engravings, the VMs is not unique in that respect. For example the following two remain a mystery. Even the highly schooled iconographers haven’t been able to crack them. It’s interesting to read their speculations. It illustrates the difficulty of interpreting VMs iconography. This one is from the "Illustrated Bartsch" - Early Italian Engravings.

.052 THE WHEEL OF POPE PIUS IV 140 x 1 12 (approx., sheet). Passavant 1860-64, vol. 5, p, 191, no. 108; Hind 1948, vol. 5, p. 296, no. 16. Below the image: Rota a Pio Quarto in Solis et Lunae / imaginibus incipiens, et futura de/ Pont/cibus prœdicens ; around the wheel: eight unidentified characters or combinations of letters; on the pennant at the upper left: SPQR The present item is a puzzle in more than one respect perhaps even literally so. Its inscription referring to Pope Pius IV apparently dates the image to the years of his pontificate, 1559-65. Although this circumstance should have placed it beyond the scope of the present study, it is included here because Passavant and Hind treated it in their catalogues, and also because, despite the inscription, it has a legitimate claim to being considered an "early'' Italian engraving.

Following Passavant, Hind compared the print to the Prognostic of 1510 (TIB 2409.033), judging it to be "very near'' the latter "in style of design and engraving'' and speculating that it "might have been produced at the same period, the original inscription having been altered to suit a later occasion.'' The inscription in its current form is clearly datable to the mid-sixteenth century, not only on the basis of its content but on the style of its lettering as well; there can be no doubt that it was cut onto the plate at the time of Pius's pontificate. As far as the image is concerned. the writer sees no marked resemblance to the Prognostic of 1510, except, of course, for its general nature. Like the Prognostic (if the inscription be given any credence), the print also serves as a symbolical forecast, a pictorial prophecy of events to come during the reign of Pius IV. Like the Prognostic, moreover, the technique of fine rectilinear crosshatching has the character of early sixteenth-century workmanship, suggesting that Hind may have been on the right track after all. In this context, it may be noted that the initials SPQR on the pennant are slightly different in style from the letters of the principal inscription; to the present writer's eyes, they seem to betray an earlier hand.

Granting that the pictorial elements of the engraving may predate its inscription by a generation or more, one also notes that the head of the pontiff emerging from the wheel is bearded. As such, it bears a vague resemblance to Julius 11, who grew his celebrated appendage in 1510 and thus became the first pope of the Renaissance to go unshaven (Zucker 1977). After 1527, when Clement VII elected not to shave following the Sack of Rome, papal beards became the norm: all of his successors, including Pius IV, wore them down to the end of the seventeenth century (see ills. in Haidacher). At any rate, the head in the engraving resembles Pius no more than Julius; its features are somewhat more in keeping with those of Paul III ( 1534-49), Julius III ( 1550-55), or Paul IV (1555-59), but there is no reason to suppose that any of these mid-sixteenth century pontiffs was intended.

Clearly, the dilemma posed by the engraving will only be resolved by explaining the significance of the unusual group of images arrayed about the wheel, as well as the cryptic lettering on the rim of the wheel itself. The present writer is unable to accomplish this task and unaware of any other attempt to do so. (Munich.)