Renaissance Brass Alms Dish with Inscribed Band

An exceptional Renaissance brass alms dish, richly worked with a central boss encircled by bold lobed and gadrooned ornament, within a broad inscribed band and outer rim finely punched with a repeating floral motif. The central medallion is framed by a raised border of alternating leaf and tongue motifs — a form that became emblematic of the finest Augsburg and Nuremberg metalwork of the mid-16th century. The surrounding inscription, though partly stylised and now softened by age, imitates the Gothic-Latin script traditionally associated with religious or moral texts, serving as both decoration and invocation of sanctity.