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I came across a medal commemorating the coronation of Leopold II as Holy Roman Emperor in 1790.

The inscription on the obverse of the medal is:

LEOPOLDUS II D·G·R·IMP·S·A·G·H·B·REX·A·A·B·L·D·

With so many interpuncts in the inscription it is clear to me that Leopold II had many titles, though it seems that the medallist heavily abbreviated almost all of them. What are the titles that the inscription mentions?

Here is a picture of the medal in case I messed up one of the interpuncts: enter image description here The image was taken by me.

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  • My apologies. Attribution has been added.
    – terminex9
    Commented Dec 16, 2015 at 22:18

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The inscription LEOPOLDUS II D·G·R·IMP·S·A·G·H·B·REX·A·A·B·L·D abbreviates the following:

Leopoldus Secundus, Dei gratia Romanorum imperator semper augustus; Germaniae, Hungariae, Bohemiae rex; Archidux Austriae; Burgundiae et Lotharingiae dux

These refer to, in order, his titles of:

Note that this is not Leopold II's full title. He held so many kingdoms and duchies it is highly unwieldy to list them all.

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    Excellent! And thank you for the translations as well. The only letter that seems to be missing from the inscription is the 'G' after semper augustus. Could this refer to Germany? (not sure what the Latin would be)
    – terminex9
    Commented Dec 15, 2015 at 5:06
  • @terminex9 Oh, I missed that letter, sorry. It is indeed Germany.
    – Semaphore
    Commented Dec 15, 2015 at 5:35
  • Semaphore - Shouldn't "Dei gratia Romanorum imperator semper augustus" be translated as "by the grace of God, emperor of the Romans and always august", (or "by the grace of God, emperor of the Romans and always emperor" since augustus also means emperor) instead of By Grace of God, Holy Roman Emperor, the always august"?
    – MAGolding
    Commented May 27, 2016 at 1:45
  • @MAGolding In a literal translation, sure. But I wasn't doing a translation; I was listing the titles it was referencing, and the medieval Emperor of the Romans is conventionally referred to as the Holy Roman Emperor. Also, augustus is an imperial dignity, but I don't think it is usually considered equivalent to the emperor title in translations.
    – Semaphore
    Commented May 27, 2016 at 22:34

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