NUMISMATICS. – Numismatics is the science that studies coinage in all its constituent elements and in the evolution they have undergone over the course of the centuries.
Metallic coinage constitutes that medium of exchange which, having appeared and been adopted in the 7th century B.C. in the eastern Hellenic world, immediately spread throughout the entire Mediterranean Hellenic world and then into the Roman world, reaching down to our own day, while preserving its general characteristics intact and repeating to the present the various experiments and adaptations that the development of economic civilization has imposed upon it in every age.
As for the types adorning its two faces, they always bear above all the imprint of the religious conception of the various peoples, ancient and modern, whether through symbols drawn from the natural world, the animal world, and human manufactures, or through the actual figure of the divinity, conceived and portrayed in human form. Roman coinage continued until the Constantinian age, imbued with the spirit and forms of pagan religion, repeating symbols and representations of all the divinities of the Greco-Roman Olympus; but once the religion of Christ emerged into the light, coinage too reflected the triumph of Christian thought.
Christian coinage in the Italian peninsula extends throughout the period from the Constantinian age to the present day, and comprises three grand groups of issues: the coinage from Constantine to Romulus Augustulus; Byzantine coinage, throughout the Byzantine world and in the countries that imitated its coinage for a longer or shorter period; and Italian coinage of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
I. THE LATE ROMAN EMPIRE
This comprises the Constantinian age and that of the Valentinians, up to the fall of the Empire. Coinage displays the first Christian signs and reveals the subsequent and complete disappearance of those numerous types which for three centuries had illustrated the entire coinage of Rome, reflecting pagan religion and worship.The Tetrarchs present only 5 divinities; Constantine the Great, 4; Constantine II, 3 (Iuppiter, Mars, Sol); Constans I, one (Mars), and with him the typology relating to the pagan divinities of imperial Rome comes to an end. The same may be said of the personifications (Concordia, Iustitia, Fides, Pietas, Felicitas, Spes, Virtus, Genius, etc.), which for the most part rose to the rank of divinities in their own right: together they formed a grandiose and varied pantheon of at least 30 different representations, as many as are found in the age of the Antonines. Of these, the Tetrarchs still present 22; Constantine I, 15; Crispus, 6; Constans and Constantius only Securitas. This subsequent and rapid disappearance of the pagan types in fact expresses on the coinage the development of Constantine’s religious policy and the ascendancy of the new faith. Coinage indeed reveals this transition in all its stages. The Constantinian age in the broad sense, and then the age of the Valentinians, mark the two periods in which the stages of this development can be most clearly observed, down to its final phase.
Christianity first appears on the coinage through signs of early Christian symbolism: the cross and the chrismon; secondly, there appears that peculiar attitude of the imperial portrait, the head turned upward, which would remain in art as an expression of exaltation and divine inspiration; this is followed by the appearance of the «manus Dei», indicating the tangible presence of the divinity protecting the Augusti; finally, there comes the advent of the cross-bearing Angel, a direct derivation of the Roman Victory.
The Cross and the chrismon begin to appear, usually on the reverse, as «symbols», that is, as secondary elements extraneous to the monetary type, which continues to be pagan, and still on only a very small number of issues and pieces. Almost at the same time they are found as «accessories» to the type; later they rise to constitute the true «type» itself, first on a few issues and then on the entire coinage, with the absolute exclusion of every other element. This evolution lasts for more than a century and reaches full development shortly before the fall of the Western Empire, through the two principal stages mentioned above. The intermittent and sporadic nature of these signs in the first period should not be attributed to the responsibility or personal initiative of the minters, but to the circumstance that the imperial Chancellery had to take account of the Empire’s very numerous pagans.
a) The Cross (in its three variants † ✠ ✠) appears as a symbol in the field of the Constantinian small bronzes SOLI INVICTO and MARTI CONSERVATORI (314–18); then on the area on which two standing Victories place the shield inscribed VOTA POPULI B(OMANI) (about 320); later on the small bronzes GLORIA EXERCITUS, between two soldiers guarding the standards (333–35). It then returns, as a symbol, on the gold and bronze issues of the Valentinians, Theodosius, Honorius, John, etc.
As an accessory to the monetary type, the Cross appears on the emperor’s sceptre or on the globe held by Roma, Victory, or the emperor (the cross-bearing globe), always during the period of the Valentinians. Finally, the long jewelled Cross appears in the right hand of the standing Victory, determining her transformation into the Christian angel, specifically under the Augustae of Valentinian III (Galla Placidia and Grata Honoria); the Cross replaces every other attribute: the crown, the palm, and the trophy. It must nevertheless be recalled that the emperor Zeno, on his large classicizing bronze (471–476–491), revived the walking Roman Victory with crown and palm [IMPERATOR] ZENO FELIX PER[PEYVS] AVG[VEYUS] – INVICTA ROMA S[ENATVS] C[ONSVLTO], a type that Theodoric would adopt on his well-known gold medallion (497–500), as would Theodahad later (534–36) on his magnificent large bronze [D[OMINVS] N[OSTER] THEODAHATUS REX – VICTORIA PRINCIPUM S[ENATVS] C[ONSVLTO]].
Only from the age of the Valentinians does the Cross constitute the true type of the solidi, gold tremisses, silver coins, and small bronzes down to the fall of the Empire; on the bronze of Galla Placidia one reads around the Cross SALUS REIPUBLICAE; on the solidus of Olybrius, SALUS MUNDI; and later, in the Eastern Empire, on the silver coin of Tiberius II Constantine, LUX MUNDI.
b) The chrismon is already found as a symbol in the Constantinian age, in the field of the small bronzes GLORIA EXERCITUS – VIRTUS EXERCITUS, beside the two soldiers guarding the labarum, or beside the standard between two seated prisoners (320–24); then on other small bronzes, VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC. PER., with the two Victories (320–24); then once again on the small bronzes GLORIA EXERCITUS, beside the two soldiers guarding the labarum (333–35); on the gold solidi of Constantius II, GLORIA REIPUBLICAE, between the two figures of Roma and Constantinople; and finally between the four military standards on the large silver coin of Constans, etc. With these issues, too, the circumstance is repeated that only a very small proportion of them bears this symbol.
From the age of the Valentinians to the fall of the Empire, the chrismon, as a symbol, appears on gold solidi between Roma and Constantinople, who support the shield of the vota; beside the standing emperor, the standing or writing Victory; or in the exergue of gold issues, etc.; and again on the solidus of Anthemius, between the two emperors Anthemius and Leo.
As an accessory to the monetary type, it adorns Constantine’s helmet on the small bronzes of the mints of Trier, from the period 313–17; it then adorns the shield of Constantius II and the cuirass of Constans; it surmounts the globe held by Roma on the gold medallion of Nepotianus, and the crown of the vota held by the two Victories on the bronzes of Magnentius, Decentius, etc. Then, in the age of the Valentinians, the chrismon appears on the emperor’s shield on the obverse of the solidi of Honorius, Valentinian, and Majorian; on the shield of the Victory on the medallion of Attalus, and on that of the solidi of Valens, etc.; finally, it is inscribed by the Victory on the solidi of Galla Placidia, Flaccilla, etc.
As a true type in its own right, the chrismon first appears on the large bronzes of Magnentius and Decentius, flanked by the A–Ω; these are the pieces also found in the loculi of the catacombs, used as devotional medals—the only ones deliberately placed there, since the others were attached outside merely as identifying signs, and only their obverse is visible. In the age of the Valentinians, the chrismon constitutes the type of the quinarii and gold tremisses of almost all subsequent emperors, and of the silver coins of Severus II, Anthemius, Glycerius, etc.
But the chrismon found its most important adaptation on the standard of the imperial cavalry, which became the Christian labarum (v.). In the form described by Eusebius (Vita Constantini, I, 31), the labarum appears, so far as is known, only once on a Roman coin, namely on the small bronze coin of Constantine SPES PUBLICA. In the second form, however (a cloth surmounting the Roman standard, on which the Christian monogram is inscribed), it first appears from 325 onward on the common small bronze coins GLORIA EXERCITUS, on which two soldiers stand guard over the standard surmounted by the Christian labarum, of Constantine and his sons; then, after 337, in the hands of Constans and Constantius, sometimes standing on a ship, sometimes crowned by Victory, sometimes in the act of trampling the defeated enemy; these are the issues FEL. TEMP. REPARATIO - GLORIA ROMANORUM - TRIUMPHATOR GENTIUM BARBARORUM - VIRTUS CONSTANTI - VIRTUS CONSTANTINI AUG(VST) - GAUDIUM POPULI ROMANI. These types were repeated down to Arcadius and Honorius. Under Valentinian III, the use of the labarum as an accessory to the emperor’s figure tended to decline, because the emperor now took the long cross as a sceptre, or a short one resting on his shoulder, and triumphed in the type that now dominated the solidus: the emperor standing frontally, leaning on the cross-bearing sceptre and trampling a dragon with a human head, a type which, in Valentinian’s case, seems to celebrate the victory over Attila at Châlons and his expulsion from Gaul, and then, in Marcian’s case, the fact that, with the aid of s. Leo, he also freed Italy from him. Nevertheless, a labarum is still found on the bronze coins and gold solidi of several Byzantine emperors, from Theophilus (839–42) to Constantine VIII (1025–28), at least.
c) The manus Dei, as an accessory with a clearly Christian significance, first appears on the small consecration bronzes of Constantine, where the new divus is shown ascending in a quadriga to heaven; it is then seen crowning the head of Constantius II on the gold medallion GAUDIUM ROMANORUM; next, that of Honorius standing and crushing the crouching lion, on the solidus VICTORIA AUGG.; finally, the diademed heads of Valentinian III, Galla Placidia, Grata Honoria, Arcadius, Eudocia, etc. The manus Dei often appears above the heads of Byzantine emperors, from Constantine V and Leo IV through John I Zimesces, Basil II, Michael IV, Alexius I, John II, and down at least to Isaac II (1185–95).
Imperial iconography from Constantine onward also sporadically presents a particular feature: eyes turned toward heaven. This might seem to have been determined by religious sentiment; in reality, however, this attitude is repeated on certain series of coins struck on the occasion of imperial anniversaries beginning on 25 July 326, and is never accompanied by religious symbols. These are rare series struck in the name of Constantine and his sons, and then of certain successors down to Julian Caesar, that is, from the year following the Council of Nices to the time when Julian, having been made Augustus, declared himself an opponent of Christianity.
d) The use of the nimbus, extremely rare during the first three centuries of the Empire and dating back to the Antonines, seems to have originated in the East; it certainly acquired particular importance after Constantine’s conquest of the East. It always and everywhere expressed the emperor’s divinity, and only later assumed a Christian meaning. Diocletian and Maximian are already shown with nimbi on the lead medallion in Paris celebrating the crossing of the Rhine in 287, followed by Constantine Augustus and Constantius Caesar on the gold medallion AETERNA GLORIA SENAT(US) P(OPULUS)Q(UE) R(OMANUS); Constantine, in turn, on the gold medallion SOLI INVICTO COMITI from the mint of Siscia; and Constantius II Augustus again on the large gold medallion D(OMINUS) N(OSTER) CONSTANTIUS VICTOR SEMPER AUG(USTUS); Fausta on her magnificent gold piece PIETAS AUGUSTAE, and Gratian on the solidus PRINCIPIUM INVENTITIS; then Valentinian and Valens on gold solidi and medallions, and all the emperors who are seated in ceremonial dress: Valentinian and Valens, Honorius and Arcadius, Theodosius and Valentinian on the solidi VOTA PUBLICA; VICTORIA AUGG.; GLORIA ROMANORUM; SALUS REIPUBLICAE; finally, Anthemius and Leo are shown with nimbi, standing and jointly supporting a long cross, on the solidus SALUS REIP(UBLICAE).
e) The evolution from the type of Victoria to that of the Angelus is evident from the coins. While Roman Victory continues to appear, with her customary attributes and in the poses most characteristic of this late period (supporting the shield of the tota, inscribing that same shield, carrying the trophy, etc.), her figure is also found half-length, frontal, and with outspread wings, in a hieratic but academic composition, suspended in the upper field of the coin, where the two emperors sit, apparently placing her hands or a crown upon their heads. She is already seen on a gold coin of Diocletian CONCORDIAE AUGG. NN., but this is an incidental appearance; later, however, the type becomes established on the gold solidi of Gratian, then of the Valentinians, Theodosius, Maximus, Flavius Victor, etc. (cf. the reverses VICTORES AUGUSTI; VICTORIA AUGG.; BONO REIPUBLICAE NATI). A second phase is represented by the reverse type of the Augustae from Valentinian III onward: rigidly posed and frontal, with parallel, lowered wings, she appears leaning against the long cross resting on the ground. From the Western world this type, like all the others of the period, passed into the Byzantine world and onto Byzantine coinage; and, as a fixed type, it persisted until Heraclius (mid-seventh century), when it was supplanted by the cross potent that had appeared at the end of the sixth century (cf. the coins of Anastasius, Justin I, Justinian, Justin II).
II. BYZANTIUM
With the last types discussed, which are repeated in both the West and the East, one enters the domain of the Byzantine world proper.At this historical moment one encounters the singular, yet entirely explicable, phenomenon of the extremely widespread imitation of solidi and tremisses of Byzantine type and character: in Italy, by the Ostrogothic kings and subsequently by the Lombards; in France, by the Burgundians in the region of the Sequani, as early as the end of the 4th century, and by the Franks of Clovis I; in the Iberian Peninsula, by the Visigoths, when they invaded Narbonensis (412) and, with the favor of Honorius, occupied Roman Spain and Aquitaine from the Ocean to Toulouse, until the Arab conquest (beginning of the 8th century), etc.
In the Byzantine world, one must above all note the still greater fixity of the few monetary types that remained in use, their increased schematism, and the frontality that completely dominates the field of the coins, as indeed it does Byzantine figurative art as a whole. The human figure, whether deity or emperor, takes on the shape of a mannequin clothed in rigid, gem-encrusted garments, overloaded with symbols and emblems; one can no longer recognize one Augustus or another, nor distinguish him from the Augusta beside him, except through some vague ornamental detail of the dress or crown.
The coinage is equally monotonous in its reverse types, which have lost all contact with the reality of political, social, and civic life and are inspired solely by the religion of the State. Everywhere and always the cross predominates, in numerous variants: with equal or unequal arms, double-armed or patriarchal, on several steps or potent, anchored, with crosses at the four extremities, with a central medallion for the relic, with a quadrilobate medallion containing the emperor’s bust, or with two imperial busts hanging from the horizontal arms, etc.
Subsequently, the figure of Christ and that of the Virgin Mother appear in certain noteworthy variants, some of them frequently imitated from works of art of the period; then a few saints, always identified by name; while on silver, and later on bronze, the epigraphic type triumphs in phrases of sacred invocation and evocation.
The effigy of Christ was introduced by Justinian II: a frontal bust with the cross behind his head, the closed Book of the Gospels in his left hand, and the right raised in blessing, in two variants: with a beard and long, smooth, flowing hair; and with harsh facial features, stylized hair in short, stiff curls, and a short, stiff beard. After the iconoclastic movement, the bust of Christ reappeared under Theodora, and Basil inaugurated Christ seated frontally on a throne, with a cross-bearing nimbus and later a jewelled one; with a few variations in the details, this type lasted until the end of the Empire. There are also types that might be called episodic: Christ crowning Romanus I (beginning of the 10th century), and standing between Romanus IV and his wife Eudocia, crowning both with his raised arms (1076-1071); and crowning Manuel I, and Andronicus I and II, etc.
Then there is the so-called Christ «of Chalchis», standing frontally on a footstool, under Theodora (1055-56), Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118), and Alexius IV (1203-1204). Finally, he is found standing within an oval, in imitation of the Venetian sequin, under Manuel II and John VIII (1391-1425; 1423-48).
Leo IV introduced the bust of the Virgin Orans (886-912), enclosed in her veil and mantle and with her arms outstretched, a type that would alternate for centuries with that of Christ. Under Nicephorus II, the Virgin appears beside the emperor in half-length, veiled and nimbate, and together with him supports the patriarchal cross; she is again found standing beside John I, Michael III, Romanus III, etc., and later on the solidus of Theodora, who appears standing in a close-fitting tunic with a cross-patterned apron and supporting the long labarum in her left hand; the Virgin brings her right hand beside the labarum.
Under Romanus IV (1067-71), the type inaugurated by John I Zimiskes at the end of the 10th century reappears: namely, the frontal figure of the Virgin, shown half-length and holding with both hands the medallion of the Divine Son. The type lasted for a long time, alternating with that of the seated Virgin, with this medallion before her breast, and with that of the standing Virgin Orans, with the same medallion upon her breast. Then there is the episodic type of the Virgin crowning the emperor. But the most graceful figure, the least stylized and the most natural, is the Virgin on the large silver coin of Romanus IV: standing, with an exceedingly long veil, tunic, and mantle and a broad nimbus, she carries the nimbate and blessing Divine Son on her left arm. Perhaps she is to be identified with the Virgin Hodegetria, known from other monuments of the period.
Then the saints appear. The first is St. George, in cuirass, short tunic, and cloak. He is young and nimbate, with his left hand on the hilt of his sword, and supports with his right the patriarchal cross together with John II Comnenus (1118-43). Then St. Theodore and St. Demetrius are found, introduced by Manuel I Comnenus (1143-80). They are nimbate and standing, and together with the emperor support the patriarchal cross, the labarum, or the ostensorium: St. Theodore is bearded, with cuirass, short tunic, and cloak, and rests his left hand on the long sheathed sword; St. Demetrius is nimbate, wears a cuirass, and has his left hand on his breast. The Archangel Gabriel was adopted by Isaac II Angelus (1185-95); he appears young, nimbate, and winged, dressed in cuirass and tunic, with his left hand on his breast, and together with the emperor supports a sword standing upright on the ground. On other issues, St. Michael crowns the emperor, or together they support the long Cross. Under Alexius III Angelus (1195-1203), St. Constantine and St. Demetrius are found. Finally, Michael VIII Palaeologus (1261-82) appears on his coin kneeling before the Savior, who blesses him, while St. Michael appears behind him, winged and nimbate. On the reverse of this solidus is a conventional bird’s-eye view of the circuit of the turreted walls of Constantinople, at whose center appears the bust of the Virgin Orans, protectress of the city.
III. CHRISTIAN ITALY
The opening of the urban communal mints dates from the period around the year 1000, with the first flourishing of the Italian communes. The series begin with denari of indistinct and irregular outlines, bearing inscriptions in Gothicizing letters, with a type at first limited to epigraphic devices, and then depicting the Cross, the flower, and the imperial eagle. With the development of communal liberties, this type unfolds and becomes fixed in the figure of the bishop and in the effigy of the patron saint; the latter soon comes to prevail everywhere, personifying the free commune.There are many such saints who appear, at uncertain dates, in the individual communes and in successive periods of the Italian Middle Ages: ss. Pietro and Paolo at Rome, s. Giovanni at Florence, s. Marco at Venice, s. Zeno at Verona, s. Ciriaco at Ancona, s. Ansovino at Camerino, s. Emidio at Ascoli, s. Novolone at Faenza, s. Savino at Fermo, s. Imerio at Cremona, s. Abondio at Como, s. Siro at Pavia, s. Prosodocimo at Padua, s. Gaudenzio at Rimini, s. Apollonio at Brescia, s. Ercolano at Perugia, s. Giusto at Trieste, s. Lorenzo at Viterbo, s. Secondo at Asti, s. Posidonio at Mirandola, s. Petronio at Bologna, s. Maurelio at Ferrara, etc. According to the periods and denominations, the types consist sometimes of a bust, sometimes of a standing figure shown frontally, and sometimes of a figure seated on a throne or even beneath an arch. On these primitive dies the bust is drawn schematically and inserted in a triangular form into the small field of the coin; it appears frontally, the head haloed or covered by the papal or episcopal mitre, and clothed in the priestly mantle fastened at the chest by a large gem serving as a clasp.
The saint standing frontally likewise bears mitre, halo, and priestly mantle; he is usually shown in the act of blessing and leaning with his left hand on the pastoral staff or the tall cross. This type too finds parallels in the contemporary products of the major and minor arts. At times the saints are contained within a niche, as with s. Siro at Pavia. Nor is it unusual for the saint to support a city or church in his hand; this is how s. Terenzio at Pesaro, s. Petronio at Bologna, s. Prosodocimo at Padua, etc., are represented. Less common is the saint seated frontally, as at Bologna, Parma, Cremona, Milan, Como, Monza, etc.; corresponding to it are the blessing pope on the silver Avignonese grossi, crowned Rome, with senatorial mantle and orb, on the anonymous papal grossi (13th–14th centuries), the Angevin kings on the silver gigliati of the mints of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and finally Christ seated on a throne and blessing on the Venetian matapans, etc.
Distinctive are the two representations on the Venetian zecchino coined from 1284 onward: the Redeemer blessing within a starry halo, and s. Marco handing the standard of Venice to the kneeling doge; these are types whose style and conception are still Byzantine in character and find parallels in certain mosaic representations in the oldest cathedrals.
In southern Italy, monetary civilization does not exhibit a similar development. Here there are few mints operating under the influence of Byzantine rule and its coinage; from them derive the Byzantine-style series of Benevento, Salerno, Mileto, Naples, etc., in which the Cross prevails above all, accompanied, on the large bronze follari, by an extremely crude, summary bust composed of distinctly linear elements. At Salerno this is named and identified as the bust of Christ, s. Pietro, the Mother of God, and s. Matteo; at Gaeta, as s. Erasmo; at Naples, as s. Gennaro, etc.
But since the various Norman, Hohenstaufen, Angevin, Durazzo, and Aragonese dynasties prevail here from this very moment, the subordination of religious interest to dynastic interest takes place, with absolute precedence over the rest of the Peninsula. Nevertheless, on the gold tareni of Enrico VI, Federico II, and Manfredi, the Cross appears with the Byzantine legend I(MEOV)C X(PIXTO)C NIKA, while Ruggero, duke on the silver ducat of Brindisi, places the bust of the Redeemer; at Benevento, Sicone changes the old type of the Roman Victory into the properly designated archangel Michele; and Ruggero, count of Mileto, places on his trifollaro the beautiful and evocative representation of the Virgin seated with the Divine Son in her arms.
A little later, in the second half of the 13th century, Carlo I d’Angiò inaugurates on his gold soldo the complex representation of the Annunciation (repeated by Carlo II), in which inspiration, ingenuousness, and freshness combine in the precious work of art represented by the die, and the exquisite, small yet complex image appears to be inspired by some painting (AVE GRACIA PLENA DOMINUS TECUM). Then Alfonso I d’Aragona writes D(OMI)N(U)S M(EUS) ADIUTOR ET EGO DESP(ERAVI) IN
M(E) around the representation of the sovereign on horseback; more proudly, Ferdinando I d’Aragona proclaims himself CORONATUS QUIA LEGITIME CERTAVIT around the coronation scene, which presents the King seated frontally on a throne, with sceptre and orb surmounted by a cross, being crowned by a cardinal standing to his right, who is in turn assisted by a bishop standing to his left. Finally, beside the figure of the archangel Michele, standing upon the dragon stretched at his feet, the type of his carlino, one reads IUSTA TUENDA. Alfonso II d’Aragona, moreover, writes CORONAVIT ET UNXIT ME MANUS T(UA) D(OMINE) on his silver coronato, which declares and sanctions the divine right of his kingdom.
In the sixteenth century, lordships, duchies, and principalities become established almost everywhere, in which dynastic interest, and therefore iconographic interest or the right of effigy, predominates. But although religious interest, expressed by the monetary type, weakens at the same time, it is not entirely eliminated or exhausted: indeed, it becomes more complex and now often reflects prototypes from the great contemporary pictorial and sculptural arts. These are often episodic types, reproduced and adapted on the die with a true artistic sense; they are religious legends inserted and multiplied there to reflect that popular religious sentiment of the humbler masses, which was never extinguished in Italy.
In the Savoy series, Amedeo VIII displays s. Maurizio on horseback with halo, standard, and sword; on the duchies of 1430 the Saint hands the standard to the kneeling Duke, repeating the gesture of s. Marco at Venice. Ludovico writes on the duchy: DEUS IN ADIUTORIUM MEUM INTENDE; and Carlo I repeats the ejaculation CHRISTUS VINCIT, CHRISTUS REGNAT, CHRISTUS IMPERAT. Carlo Emanuele I writes DISCERNE CAUSAM MEAM beside the figure of s. Carlo, an allusion to the war for the succession of Monferrato; and beside the b. Amedeo one reads: BENEDIC MAREDITTATI TUAT; and POEDERE ET RELIGIONE TENEMUR, a motto by which an explanation has been sought for the FERT, which nevertheless remains enigmatic. At Milan, under the Sforza, s. Ambrogio appears mitred, haloed, and galloping on horseback against the heretics, or standing and striking a warrior with a scourge; finally, he appears upon the clouds with the enemies at his feet. At Pisa, from the first Republic onward (12th century), the Virgin with the Divine Son appears seated and takes up permanent residence there for centuries, while Siena calls itself CIVITAS VIRGINIS; at Aquileia the Virgin already appears on the coins of the patriarch Raimondo (second half of the 13th century), and shortly afterward the invocation VIRGO MARIA ADVOCATA MUNDI. The Virgin Mother with the Divine Son appears frequently on the coins of the Peninsula almost everywhere: at Modena, under Francesco I d’Este, the Mother of God adoring the Divine Son: AVERTISTI IRAM INDIGNATIONIS; at Parma, crowned by angels; at Pesaro, under Giovanni Sforza, seated on a throne; at Florence, under Francesco I, the Annunciation: ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI; at Venice, the Virgin blessing the kneeling doge, etc.
Poi sono le scene della vita di Cristo che compaiono sporadicamente sulla moneta: a Ferrara, con Ercole I si trova Cristo che risorge e l'adorazione dei Magi; con Alfonso III d'Este il Calvario; con Ercole II la Maddalena ai piedi della Croce. A Reggio, Gesù sostiene la Croce ed il suo sangue riempie il calice (CUIUS CRUORE SANATI); a Camerino sotto Guidobaldo è la risurrezione di Cristo (RESIDERE ET ADHUC TECUM SUM) ed ancora Cristo e s. Tommaso (CREDERE TUTUS); a Firenze sullo scudo di Ferdinando II è il Battesimo di Gesù (PILIUS MEUS DILECTUS); a Mantova, su uno scudo di Francesco II, Gesù a semibusto emerge dal sepolcro dietro il quale si eleva la Croce (SI LABORATIS EGO REFICIAM VOS). A Mirandola è la risurrezione di Cristo fra i discepoli ecc.
Poi appaiono ancora i santi più popolari un po' dovunque: s. Francesco che riceve le stigmate o è in ginocchio ai piedi della Croce a Pesaro, a Urbino, a Mantova, a Bardi, a Mirandola ecc.; s. Giorgio a cavallo che trafigge il drago a Mantova, a Mesocco, a Ferrara ecc. A Mantova Francesco II presenta l'arcangelo Raffaele con il piccolo Tobia ed ancora s. Andrea che riceve da s. Longino la reliquia del preziosissimo Sangue; a Pesaro è s. Girolamo nel deserto con il leone accosciato; a Lucca, insieme col SANCTUS VULTUS DE LUCA, si trova s. Pietro stante o s. Martino a cavallo col mendico, ecc. Con l'Ottocento, ed anche prima, la moneta moderna
italiana non desume più dalla religione dei padri la sua ispirazione, ma classicheggiando e paganeggiando ripete formale e simboli che hanno perduto l'antico significato e valore. - Vedi tavv. CXXIV-CXXV.
Per l'età bizantina: J. Sabatier, Description générale des monnaies byzantines, 3 voll., Parigi 1862; W. Wroth, Study of byzantine numismatics, in Corolla numismatica, Oxford 1906, pp. 325-55; id., Catalogue of the byzantine coins in the Brit. Museum, 2 voll., Londra 1908; H. Goodacre, Notes on some rare byzantine coins, in Numismatic chronicle, 5e serie, 11 (1931), pp. 151-59; id., The Story of Constantine VII, ibid., 15 (1935), pp. 114-19; id., A numismatic of Andronicus III, Anna, and John V, ibid., pp. 232-40; id., The flat bronze coinage of Nicaea, ibid., 18 (1938), pp. 159-64; S. L. Cesano, La zecca di Costantinopoli, s. V. Costantinopoli, in Enc. Ital., XI, pp. 627-30.
Per il medioevo italiano: A. Engel, Recherches sur la numismatique des Normands de la Sicile et d'Italie, Parigi 1882; J. Friedländer, Die Münzen der Ostgothen, Berlino 1884; G. Bazzi-M. Santoni, Vademecum del raccoglitore italiano o Repertorio, Camerino 1886; M. Cagiati, Le monete del Reame delle due Sicilie da Carlo d'Angiò a Vittorio Emanuele II, Napoli 1911-12; id., Supplemento, ivi 1913-15; G. Sambon, Repertorio generale delle monete coniate in Italia dal sec. V al sec. XX, parte 1e (476-1266 d. C.), Parigi 1912; S. Ferraro, Le monete di Gaeta, Napoli 1915; M. Cagiati, La zecca di Benevento, Milano 1916-17; U. Monneret de Villard, La moneta in Italia durante l'alto medioevo, estratto da Rivista ital di numism., 1919-20; id., La monetazione nell'Italia barbarica, ibid., 1921; S. L. Cesano, L'oro in Italia nella età di mezzo e nell'evo moderno, in Atti e memorie dell'Istituto ital. di numismatica, 5 (1925), p. 113 sgg.; M. Cagiati, I tipi monetali della zecca di Salerno, Napoli 1925.
Secondina Lorenza Cesano