Abstract
Issued on June 29th of each year, papal annual medals commemorated the papacy's greatest achievement from the previous year and thus functioned as timely political statements. Urban VIII was pope during one of the most pivotal periods in early-modern Europe, reigning during the Thirty Years War, the Galileo affair, and the emergence of Absolutism. Urban's 21 annual medals commemorated churches with ancient pedigrees, construction of military fortifications, and the prosecution of the War of Castro. This study locates each of Urban's annual medals within the larger context of papal politics and concludes that despite the variety of subjects the medals delivered a single message: Urban would lead Rome as a powerful secular state supported by a strong military.