The use of coats of arms (stemme in Italian) emerged in the 12th century as a way of identifying armoured knights in combat. The practice was then adopted by the nobility and by banking and merchant families. They placed them on the outside of buildings and on tombs as identifiers or signs of allegiance. Similar stemme also appeared on livery and small-scale objects.

This medallion come from the Rocca Roveresca di Mondolfo (destroyed 1864-1895) near Sinigallia in the Marches, central Italy. It is thought that this stronghold was built in between 1483 and 1490 and designed, at least in part, by the painter, sculptor, architect and engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini for Giovanni della Rovere, whose coat of arms appears on one of the capitals.

The della Rovere acquired fame and wealth when Francesco rose through the Franciscan Order to become its general in 1464 and then Pope in 1471 as Sixtus IV. Instantly supplied with a genealogy and a coat of arms (an oak tree - rovere in Italian), the family further enhanced its position when Francesco's nephew Giuliano was elected pope, with the title Julius II, in 1503 . The secular fortunes of the family began when Sixtus invested his nephew Giovanni (1457-1501) with the lord- ship of Senigallia, thus giving him a rank which made possible his marriage to Duke Federico of Urbino's daughter. Giovanni, on his death, entrusted his son Francesco Maria to Federico's successor Guidobaldo (Duke 1482-1508) who, without an heir, devised the duchy on the boy. Thus from 1508 to 1631, when their line expired, Urbino came to be ruled by successive della Rovere dukes.

Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501) Italian architect, engineer, painter, illuminator, sculptor, medallist, theorist and writer. He was the most outstanding artistic personality from Siena in the second half of the 15th century. His activities as a diplomat led to his employment at the courts of Naples, Milan and Urbino, as well as in Siena, and while most of his paintings and miniatures date from before 1475, by the 1480s and 1490s he was among the leading architects in Italy. He was particularly renowned for his work as a military architect, notably for his involvement in the development of the Bastion, which formed the basis of post-medieval fortifications. His subsequent palace and church architecture was influential in spreading the Urbino style, which he renewed with reference to the architecture of Leon Battista Alberti but giving emphasis to the purism of smooth surfaces. His theoretical works, which include the first important Western writings on military engineering, were not published until modern times but were keenly studied in manuscript, by Leonardo da Vinci among others; they foreshadowed a number of developments that came to fruition in the 16th century.
Francesco worked on numerous fortifications in parts of the duchy of Montefeltro, and he discussed some of them in the Trattati, where he illustrated the castles of Sassofeltrio, Tavoleto and Serra S Abbondio (all c. 1478-86; destr.), that of Cagli (c. 1480-85; partly destr.), and two built between 1483 and 1490 or later for Giovanni della Rovere: Mondavio (incomplete but in good condition) and Mondolfo (destroyed 1864-95).