1-155-853 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Medal of John VIII Palaeologus, Byzantine, c1440. The Byzantine emperor John VIII (1390-1448), with a beard and wearing a tall hat with a peaked brim. The medal was made on the occasion of his visit to Ferrara, Italy in 1438 at the invitation of Pope Eugenius IV, for the Council intended to unite the Greek and Latin churches. It is probably a good likeness as it was done from eye-witness drawings. The idea for the medal's production was likely to have come from the court of the Este (the ruling family of Ferrara) but it is generally thought that it was inspired by two medals of the Roman emperors Constantine and Heraclius, of early fifteenth-century French workmanship, then thought to have been antique.