I have been asked to identify a curious medallion that was found on a
Missouri farm (bootheel section) about 30 years ago. I have two jpeg images
that I can send to anyone that is interested (I haven't got my website up
and running yet so can't put them on for general viewing at present). The
piece is about 3 in. in diameter and is probably brass. One face shows the
head profile of a man dressed in one of those hats that actors always wear
in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet--with what looks like a stuffed cloth
roll that fits around the head and has flowing material coming out of the
crown and down the sides. Underneath the profile is a name - Don Inigo de
Davalos.

The other face has a shield with a symbol that looks like a castle but more
stylized like a chess rook, at the top edge flanked by flowering vines; the
center is hard to determine but may be some kind of landscape image. Below
the inscription reads:
        PERVVISEFA
OPVS PISANI PICTORIS

I tried to translate the inscription through several online dictionaries in
Italian, Spanish, Latin and Portuguese but had no luck in getting anything
that made sense. I haven't tried identifying the shield as a possible coat
of arms but am going to. Does anyone have any ideas?
Nancy O'Malley
Assistant Director
W.S. Webb Museum of Anthropology
and Office of State Archaeology
211 Lafferty Hall
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40506
Tele.: 859-257-8208
FAX: 859-323-3686