SERAPH - St. in Isaiah's vision (Is. 6:2-7), Ministura of the end of the 9th century. Detail of fol. 67v of the Greek ms. 510, of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris.
finally a scientific catalogue, and he devoted several decades to it, a mighty work that gave the author renown and fame in the field of international numismatics.
Meanwhile, the S. gave news of his studies and findings in various periodicals: in the Bollettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma (v. the years 1891, 1895, 1897, 1898 and then 1943-44); in the Atti e Memorie dell'Istituto italiano di Num. (vol. I, 1912), in the volume of writings in honor of Bartolomeo Nogara (1937) and finally in that on the Esplorazioni sotto la confessione di S. Pietro in Vaticano (carried out in the years 1940-49). I, Vatican City 1951, pp. 225-44.
The Catalogo del Medagliere Vaticano (Le monete e le bolle plumbee pontificie del Medagliere Vaticano) drawn up by the S. consists of 4 large vols. of 1676 pp. published under the care of the Vatican Library, respectively in the years 1910, 1912, 1913, 1927 (Milan), where the papal series from the first beginnings of coinage down to our own days, now rich with more than 20,000 pieces, are systematically arranged in strictly chronological order, by metals and by mints; and each piece is perfectly described in every one of its elements; the volumes are illustrated overall by more than 200 plates of coins, by 20 plates of bulls and by several dozen plates of monograms and coats of arms. Numerous indexes, both partial and general, complete them, along with many pages of notes that touch on all the problems inherent in the individual series. A work that will remain a worthy monument to those very rich collections and an outstanding testimony to the labor expended on it by the S. himself.
After 1929 the S., called to fill the high office of Governor of the State of Vatican City, was of necessity obliged to slow down and diminish his activity as a scholar, constrained to this thereafter also by the weight of years and by the urgency of the events that followed one another while he still gave scrupulous care to those many delicate assignments in various fields of administration and of charitable works, which had been entrusted to him by the trust of the five Pontiffs whom he served and by public esteem; and he did not fail to take part in the activity of those numerous academies, associations and numismatic, archaeological and cultural societies, which counted him as a coveted member.
Bibliography
Secondina Lorenza Cesano