The Badge of the Cincinnati

The Duc d’Anjou (Louis XX) was invited to the papal mass at the Chapel in Les Invalides and the only decoration he wore was (what looked to me like) the smaller medal of the Society of the Cincinnati on his lapel. No idea why he chose that one!

It has to be “Omnia Reliquit Servare Rem Publicam.” In Classical Latin the English “republic” generally is two words, “res publica;” REMPU would be an abbreviation of “rem publicam” and not “republicam.”

Mr. Cusack, I am a member of the Society, do you know who purchased the medal? When in D.C. visit Anderson House, the Cincinnati HQ, there is a nice museum there as well. Members can stay there as each State Society (there is also a French Society) has a suite of rooms. I stay there when in D.C. It is very nice and well preserved. Worth a visit.

I am always amused by the propensity of scholars (and particularly scholars who are not Americans) to compare the Society of the Cincinnati unfavorably with European orders of chivalry. The badge or “eagle” of the Cincinnati is of course accorded special precedence not only among “America’s many hereditary societies” (which is itself a misnomer since the “many hereditary societies” that phrase here intends are not hereditary societies at all, but more properly lineage societies) but also by the U.S. military. Its original French name Ordre des Cincinnatus and the favor it received there (under a monarchical tradition contemporary to the Society of the Cincinnati and the United States of America’s foundings) tell a different story with regard to it being “not, strictly speaking, an order.” If the contemporary French crown considered it an order, surely that was the proper determination and not a centuries-later comparison. Rather, it was and is very much an order, but a hereditary order –the only true hereditary order– of the United States, a New-World, republican, sovereign nation, and the class of military officers who ensured its sovereignty instituted it themselves in such a way that speaks to the very nature of the United States versus the monarchies of the eighteenth century. Are its members a nobility? No; the United States is *rightly* without nobiliary or chivalric authorities based on its own republican tradition; but it is certainly *the* hereditary order of the United States of America and its membership and lineages are the equal in character within the traditions of their respective nations of any national or chivalric hereditary order.

The Latin text of the reverse side and translation don’t quite work. Virt Praem Soci Cin rum Inst cannot mean ‘Reward of Valor of the Society of the Cincinnati,’ though it is certainly an accurate paraphrase. As given, societas is nominative and would agree with insituta. Though that Latin is fine, the trouble is that the translation does not reflect it and reads genitive, societatis . . . institutae. The abbreviations in the Latin text on both sides are pretty quirky. The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers help:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/298
As such, I would suggest ‘Reward of valor. Society of the Cincinnati’, a minor quibble, I realize. Nice post, by the way.

My sister has in her possession a medal that reads Societas Cincinnatorum Instituta AD1783
It is contained in a sealed frame. Can you tell me anything about this medal? Who would have received such a medal? I have a 4th great grandfather that was assigned to General George Washington’s life guard unit, could that have been awarded to the members of his company? his name was John George Burkhardt.