Beginnings

Numismatics is the study of coins {nummus = the Latin word for the lowest Roman copper denomination, vofjuofjLa = coin in ancient, medieval, and modern Greek) in terms of metrology, metallic value, fineness, mint attribution, and chronology, but also the study of realities in which coinage has been embedded, namely

Socio-economic history, political ideology, and religious practices, language, and art (Grierson 1975,1992; Casey 1986; Morrisson 1992; Howgego 1995). The beginnings of Numismatics can be traced back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the works of Aristotle, having been made largely available to western European thinkers through Arabic translations and Byzantine commentaries, introduced them to the principles of Politics and Ethics (Langholm 1983; Laiou 1999). The study of coinage was for Christian philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas a means to analyse social structures and discuss the ideals of kingship and government. According to Aquinas’ work De Regimine Principum coinage was central to theocratic order and kingship, as it allowed rulers to gather around them their entire populace in an organised and solid body (Sigmund 1988: 14-29). Aristotle’s interpretation of coinage continued to influence philosophers such as Jean Buridan and Nicolas Oresme. The latter further developed Aristotle’s approach in his study of the origins and use of coinage from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Oresme’s Traite des monnaies summarizes the principles and use of coinage in society; coins are instruments of exchange of natural riches, they are easy to handle, light enough to carry, conform to a certain standard, and while having a stamp of authority approved and organized by the ruling power, they do not belong to a single individual, but to the entire community and its every member (Dupuy and Chartrain 1989: chs. 1-6).

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries represent for Numismatics a turning point. The discussion of coinage moves from abstraction to meticulous recording and research of ancient coins and medals, which formed part of the first great antiquarian collections in the West. Interest in foreign and ancient coins was certainly not a new phenomenon, and references to treasure trove and coin collections can be found as early as the Roman and Byzantine period (Morrisson 1981). In the late Middle Ages Pope Boniface VIII and the poet Petrarch were among those actively engaged in the collection of ancient coins, but it was really during the Renaissance that outstanding collections of antiquities including coins were created in papal, princely, and royal circles. Between 1402 and 1413 two interesting hybrid medals were commissioned in France by the duke of Berry. The medals depicting Herak-leios and Constantine the Great were, according to the inventories of the duke of Berry, based on genuine ancient medals (Jones 1979; Scher 1994). Inscriptions which display a good grasp of late Byzantine chancery formulas, and portraits of both Herakleios and Constantine based on that of the emperor Manuel II, tell a different story; both medals were ultimately based on forgeries, and they superbly mirror Manuel’s visit to Paris in 1400-1, contemporary artistic sensibilities in France, and the links with antiquity western rulers and aristocracy were seeking to forge.

The study of coins as a source for ancient and medieval history further develops in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when works by Ezechiel Spanheim (1664), Charles Patin (1665), Francois le Blanc (1689), Louis Jobert (1692), and Charles Du Cange (1678) lay the foundations for the methodology of Numismatics. Jobert’s La Science des medailles in particular, later translated into Italian by

Alessandro Pompeo Berti {La scienza delle medaglie. Nuova edizione con annotazioni storiche e critiche, Venice 1756), provides a first-class essay on coinage from antiquity to modern times. For Jobert Byzantine coinage was an integral part of the world of antiquity rather than an isolated phenomenon. He meticulously discussed Byzantine inscriptions, titles, and numerals alongside Roman and Greek ones. Of note are also the chronological boundaries within which Jobert places Byzantine coinage; late imperial coinage, as he calls it, begins with the foundation of Constantinople and ends with its fall to the Turks.