Italy. Undated (ca. 1837) Carlo Botta Memorial Medal. By G. Galeazzi. Bronze. Mint State. 44 mm. <strong>Obv:</strong> Head right with name CAROLVS / BOTTA around periphery, signed by artist G. GALEAZZI F. on truncation. <strong>Rev:</strong> Wreath encloses multi-line inscription AMERICANI FOEDERIS / VIETVTEN / ITALIAE POSTREMOS CASVS / LIVIANA ELEGANTIA / AETERNAVIT. Carlo Botta, M.D. (1766-1837) was a doctor, poet, writer, politician and academician, whose most significant literary work was a history of the American Revolution, S<em>toria della Guerra dellIndependenza degli Stati Uniti dAmerica</em>, published in 1809.<p>Botta received his degree from the University of Turin and while still young spent a year as a political prisoner, being an advocate for a unified Italy. He then <p>decamped for France, soon returning to Italy as a surgeon for Napoleons army. His life in that turbulent age, like those of other notable men of ideas and ink, was characterized by a tendency to annoy powerful interests, and by tireless writing. In 1809 his American Revolution history, one of the earliest and longest (1,900+ pages), was published in Italian (in Paris). It concludes at the retirement of Washington in 1783, and it was probably, at publication, the best and most useful history of the subject to date. By 1810, Thomas Jefferson was praising the work to John Adams, and he sought to have it translated and published in the young America. The first edition in French appeared in 1812 and, with or without Jeffersons sway, there were multiple American editions, in translation, by the mid 1830s. Botta later published a rather similar work surveying modern Italian history. At the very end of his life he assisted his globe-trotting son Paolo with the latters writings on California wildlife.<p>Today, perhaps the greatest significance of Bottas 1809 tome is its demonstration of the embrace by some Europeans of revolution, per the American example of Liberty and Democracy. Horatio Storer (<em>Numismatics of Massachusetts</em>; <em>Medicina in Nummis</em>), in <em>The Sanitarian </em>magazine (1890), serialized his cataloging of Medical medals. Of this piece he writes:<p><em>"This rare medal is in my collection. It is interesting to all American numismatists, in view of Dr. Bottas History of the War for American Independence."</em><p>We agree with the good doctor, but the very rarity he cites seems to have rendered the medal almost unknown. The present catalog represents the first time that a photo of it has been published in the U.S. Richard Margolis ticket (ca. 1960s?) marked $37.50 included.
