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1756. Continuation of Van Loon I page 366, no. 331. Erlanger pages 67-68. White metal. Diameter 68.2mm,
115 grams. Engraved by Johann Georg Holtzhey, after Frans van Mieris (signed obverse exergue line). Obverse: Fides standing near a pedestal on which a large Bible rests, guiding a youth by pointing the way to a shining temple on a hill, with the legend MONSTRAT ITER TVTVMQVE FACIT (She shows the way and makes it safe) around; below the exergue line the legend PRAEMIVM ACAD. LEIDENSIS EX LEGATO J. STOLP (Prize of Leiden University from the legacy of J. Stolp). Reverse: A woman seated among tools representative of academic pursuits (an open book, a globe, various scientific instruments, botanical examples, and an eagle), hold a telescope pointing toward the sun, with the legend AUCTOREM MANIFESTAT OPVS (The work reveals its author, i.e. God) around, and a space below for inscribing the winner's name.
Provenance:
According to the book Legatum Stolpianum, a treatise on the prize published in 2006 on its 250th anniversay, Jan Stolp (1671-1753) was a wealthy academic at the university of Leiden who, upon his death, left a large bequest (the Legatum Stolpianum) to promote the study of Christian theology. A portion of this bequest was used to fund a periodic (not necessarily annual) essay contest whose specific purpose was to overcome anti-Christian tendencies in the Enlightenment. He and several other devoted thinkers were very concerned about the advance of skepticism, agnosticism and religious indifference, so this competition was oriented toward protecting and promulgating Christian faith.
The curators of the bequest met periodically to specify a question for the essay competition and essays were submitted anonymously by students, though others were also permitted to make submissions. The winner was awarded a large gold medal initially valued at 250 guilders and it was considered a matter of great personal prestige to win a Stolp Prize. While the award was not given out annually, it has continued more or less regularly to the present day, and so is considered the oldest continuously awarded prize of this nature.
Stolp devoted a great deal of energy toward the end of his life in the preparations for designing and striking the medal. As noted in the Legatum Stolpianum, "In the later addition to his testament, dated January 1752, he [Stolp] bequeathed an additional 1,000 guilders for the fabrication of a pair of dies and the initial medals. The images prepared by Francois [Frans] van Mieris symbolize both sections of the competition: the obverse Theologia Naturalis, the reverse Christiana Morum."
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