Oval snuff-box decorated both on the lid and on the inside with polychrome figures. The border, which has a white background, is painted with purple volutes and swirls and bears an inscription running around the entire body of the snuff-box.

The inscription on the left-hand side reads: " ... qui sono gli Eresiarche Color seguaci d'ogni setta, e molto Più che non credi sono le tombe carche" [... here are the great Heresiarchs, all those who are followers of a motley array of sects; of these - many more than you would think - the tombs lie laden] (Dante, Inferno, 9, line 127 ff.).

The frontal portion shows the wording: "Erasmo è allata del Nassavio Duca e dalla destra e da sinistra parte a Renata Calvin parla in disparte, e Luter par, che il Sassone conduca"[Erasmus stands beside the Duke of Nassau, and, on the right and left-hand side of the Rhenish Duke, Calvin is standing aside and speaking to himself, and Luther appears to be guiding the Saxon]; on the right-hand side : "Dentro vi sono gli amorosi drudi e della Fede cristiana i Santi Atleti Benigni a Suoi, ed a nemici crudi" [Inside there are the amorous sweet lemans of the Faith, the wrestler-saints, merciful to their friends but merciless to their foes] (Dante, Paradiso 12, line 55ff.), and on the rear side, "Gaetano, e Sadoleto Cardinali, Achio, Bilichio, Cichstat, Panigarola sostengano d'Iddio l'alta Parola, e gli antichi Diritti Episcopali"[the Cardinals Gaetano and Sadoleto, Achio, Bilichio, Cichstat, Panigarola are defending the holy word of God and the ancient Episcopal Rights]. A Bible with the phrase "Bibbia Sacra" [Holy Bible] is painted on the underside of the base of the snuff-box.

This snuff-box is generally referred to as the "Heresiarch" snuff-box by virtue of the portraits of the "Heresiarchs" painted on the lid, which are counterbalanced by the portraits of the six defenders of the faith painted on the interior. More specifically, the lid displays a painting of Erasmus of Rotterdam beside William of Orange-Nassau, Calvin and Martin Luther, who is probably depicted standing beside Johann Frederick of Saxony. The inner surface of the lid, on the other hand, displays the six defenders of the Catholic faith.

This snuff-box was entrusted by Ginori Lisci to the chief painter Giovacchino Rigacci (Ginori Lisci L., 1963, plate XL), according to a mention in the report by the economist Joannon de St.Laurent (chap.1760, VIII, p. 73).

An overall total of three snuff-boxes of this type are known. One is in Naples, in the Duca di Martina Museum (Inv. n. 2836 and Ginori Lisci L., 1963), while another was published by Morazzoni ( Morazzoni G. / Levy S., 1960, I, plate IX b). (A.d'A.)