Legend: What was your age again?
](https://micrio.thingsthattalk.net/oOqud/views/max/640x640.jpg)
Fig. 1 - Leone Leoni, Medal of Michelangelo Buonarroti - Münzkabinett, SMB Berlin - inv. 18210913
The legend “MICHAELANGELUS BONARROTUS FLO[entinus] R[omanusque]AET[ati]S ANN[o]” - tells us the name of the depicted artist, his origin and his age. His age? In our example of the medal from Munich after the words “aes. ann.” - which means “his age” - the letter “S”. The other examples of medals like this one in Münzkabinett in Berlin show us the number “88”. A comparison with other copies of the medal shows us that the Munich specimen is of inferior quality. Obviously, this change is due to the fact that the Munich specimen is a replica. If you want to know more, read the extension.
Interestingly, this age is not correct. Thanks to a letter from Leone Leoni we know that the medal was created in 1560. At this time Michelangelo was only 85 years old. One can of course assume that Leone Leoni made a mistake. Or he did not know any better. Were Michelangelo and he perhaps not such close friends?
On the other hand, some researchers think that the collaboration between Leoni and Michelangelo was close and that this wrong age is due to the numerical property of the number 88. The number 88 consists of 8 and 11. According to the Christian allegory of numbers, 8 stands for the resurrection. Christ rose on the 8th day. The number 11 therefore symbolizes sin - it stands between the number of the commandments (10) and the number of the apostles (12). The rather famous Christian theologian Honorius Augustodunensis (1080-1150) interprets the number 88 as follows: God gives sinful men the resurrection won through Christ.
Let's flip the coin…