FRANCO, James (1550-1620). Great table with over two hundred religious subjects, probably destined to models for medals or rings. Venice, late 16th century. Curious and undocumented calcographic table by Giacomo Franco. Signed in the plate on the right side, it bears on the left the inscription "In Venetia aperasso Francescho di Medici, merscaro in Rialto" . Although the meaning of the term merscaro is not yet fully clarified, it is plausible that it designates a merchant specialized in the sale of small artifacts, probably metal. If so, the nature of the composition suggests that the table was conceived as an iconographic repertoire intended for the realization of devotional medals, rings or other objects of goldsmithery and small bronze. The engraving in fact collects over two hundred small compositions depicting episodes of the life of Christ, symbols of the Passion, Marian images, saints and other subjects of Christian tradition, often with small differences between one another. A useful chronological element is provided by the presence of the coat of arms of Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585), the only pontifical emblem represented, which allows to place the realization of the table within the last decades of the sixteenth century. Large calcographic sheet (347 × 260 mm), later applied on 19th century watermark paper. (1)