70

Corpus Nummorum Italicorum

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1,200.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 USD
Corpus Nummorum Italicorum
A buyer’s premium of 17.5% will be added to the cost of all lots purchased. See shipping info and full terms.
Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy. CORPUS NUMMORUM ITALICORUM. PRIMO TENTATIVO DI UN CATALOGO GENERALE DELLE MONETE MEDIEVALE E MODERNE CONIATE IN ITALIA O DA ITALIANI IN ALTRI PAESI. VOLUMES I-XX. Bologna, 1969-71 Forni reprint. Twenty volumes, complete. Folio, original matching blue leather and marbled boards, gilt. 11,144 pages; 679 plates of coins. A fine set. King Victor Emmanuel III (1869-1947), began collecting coins as a boy and first conceived the idea for a corpus of Italian coins in 1897 when he proposed it to the Italian Numismatic Society. The king freely admitted that coin collecting was the greatest passion of his life and his collection exceeded 100,000 coins near the end of his lifetime. Dating from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West to the Unification of Italy, it encompassed the issues of Italian mints both in Italy and abroad. Through his lifelong efforts and those of a series of talented numismatic secretaries, that great passion was recorded on paper: a total of 11,144 pages of text and 679 plates. In sum, they comprise the most extensive and comprehensive work ever written on the coinage of a single country. The present set includes Vol. XX, which was never officially published. Clain-Stefanelli 10186*: “A basic reference on the Italian coinage from the Middle Ages up to 1900.” Grierson 160: “Un immense ouvrage descriptif, bâti autour de la collection du roi Victor Emmanuel.”