FOOTNOTES:
[99] La qual dice coniare, as distinct from the method he describes in Chap. xvii.
[100] Staffa.
[101] In questo modo ti conviene formarla, egittarla agyrreso.
[102] Barette.
[103] Coni di ferro.
[104] Mettile sopra i tuoi taselli le punte dell’una e dell’altra, le quali si vengano a sopraporre.
[105] Ferri.
[106] This may mean working the bronze hot, but more probably softening by annealing.
[107] The method described may be illustrated by the following diagram:
Diagram illustrating the coniare process of striking medals
W WEDGE
D DIE
M MEDAL
FRAME IN PART SECTION.
CHAPTER XVII. ANOTHER WAY OF STRIKING MEDALS WITH THE SCREW.
You make an iron frame of similar size & thickness to the one described above, but of sufficient length to enable it to hold not only the two dies, taselli, on which the medal is cut, but also the female[108] screw of bronze. This screw is set beneath the male screw of iron;[109] one ought really to apply the term screw, vite, to this male screw only, the female screw being called chiocciola. The male screw should be three fingers thick and its threads[110] square, because it is stronger thus than of the usual shape. The frame has to have a hole in the top of it to admit of the screw passing through it. When you have placed your dies, taselli, beneath the screw, with the metal you propose to strike between them, you tighten them up by the insertion of iron wedges[111] so that they cannot possibly shift. You will find this necessary owing to the greater size of the bronze screw.[112] Then having prepared a piece of beam about two cubits long, or more, you fix an iron rod of sufficient thickness and of about two cubits in length to the lower end of it, and it must fit into the beam;[113] then fix your frame into a cutting in the head of the beam made exactly to hold it. It is necessary, too, to bind the beam round with stout iron bands to give it strength at the place where the frame is set in, and to prevent it from splitting.
Round the head of the screw must then be fitted a stout iron ring with two loops to it, & these have to be made to hold a long iron rod or bar,[114] say six cubits in length, so that four men can work at it, and bring their force to play upon your dies and the medal you are striking. In this method I struck about one hundred of the medals I made for Pope Clement; they were done in the purest bronze without any casting, which, as I told above, is necessary for the process called coniare. I advise every artist to note well this method of striking with the screw, for, though it be more expensive, the impressions are better, and the dies not so soon worn out. Of the gold and silver medals I struck many straight off without softening? them first; & as for the cost, perhaps after all it only appears greater, for whereas in the method of striking with the screw[115] two turns of the screw will complete the medal, in the method of striking in the coniare process at least one hundred blows with the stamps are necessary before you get the desired result.
Diagram illustrating the process of striking medals with the screw
D. DIE
M. MEDAL
AT ‘A’ WOULD COME THE FEMALE SCREW, AND THE WEDGES WOULD COME AT THE SIDES OF THE DIES.