SERAFINI, CAMILLO. - Numismatist, b. 21 April 1864 in Rome to a well-known and well-to-do Roman family, d. in the Vatican on 21 March 1952. After completing his literary and archaeological studies, he then devoted himself to numismatic research, which was to constitute the passion of his entire life.
Already in 1889, as honorary Curator, he began the study and arrangement of the Capitoline numismatic collections, whose restoration he oversaw after the events of 1943. In 1895 he was summoned by Leo XIII to the Vatican Numismatic Cabinet; and first as assistant to Carlo Ludovico Visconti, then with Enrico Stevenson, he began that work of identification, augmentation and arrangement of those collections which lasted until the end of his life. He was finally given definitive charge of, and full responsibility for, the same Medagliere in Nov. 1898, and he knew how to bring the Medagliere to first place among similar collections not only in Italy but in Europe. After only 20 years of his direction the collections, from fewer than 46,000 pieces, had doubled; and above all the collection of papal coins had grown, until it reached 18,943 specimens, of which 1,555 in gold, more than 10,000 in silver and the rest in bronze; and this thanks to the judicious purchase of numerous private collections, among which the two most important, those of Randi and Celati. S. felt it his duty to compile
