Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 161 18 Sep 2021
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Orsini's Masterful 1760 Volume on the Coinage of Florence Illustrating Hundreds of Mintmaster Marks
Orsini, Ignazio. STORIA DELLE MONETE DELLA REPUBBLICA FIORENTINA DATA IN LUCE DA IGNAZIO ORSINI ACCADEMICO FIORENTINO, APATISTA, E SOCIO COLOMBARIO. Firenze: Nella Stamperia di Pietro Gaetano Viviani, 1760. 4to, contemporary tan quarter calf with mottled boards; spine with five raised bands, ruled and decorated in gilt; red morocco spine label, gilt; all page edges speckled red. Title printed in red and black with excellent engraved printer's device by Francesco Allegrini after Giuseppe Zocchi; lvi, 327, (1) pages; woodcut illustrations of coins in the text; hundreds of additional mintmasters' marks printed from woodcuts in the margins; 6 unsigned plates depicting coins, the first two of which are engraved and the others woodcut. Binding rubbed and a bit worn at extremities, but contemporary and still rather handsome. A very good or better copy. A very scarce and impressive work on Florentine coinage of the 14th through 16th centuries. Similar in many respects to the author's 1756 Storia delle monete de' Granduchi di Toscana della Casa de' Medici e di quelle dell' augustissimo imperatore Francesco di Lorena come granduca di Toscana. The present work is important for transcribing the text of the Fiorinaio (or Libro di zecca), a manuscript held in the State Archive of Florence, from 1317 to 1533, at which point the practice of using mintmaster marks was discontinued. These marks are illustrated throughout Orsini's text, making it an important early reference on the subject. (See Ferdinando Bassoli's discussion of this work in his Monete e medaglie nel libro antico dal XV al XIX secolo [pages 57–58], noting that this passage is inaccurate in the English translation.) While Dekesel lists a similar number of copies of the present work as he does for the Tuscan volume, this seems to appear significantly less often in the trade. Dekesel O74. Lipsius 300. Scandaliato Ciciani (La letteratura numismatica nei secoli XVI–XVIII: dalle raccolte della Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte, 1980) 23.
Orsini, Ignazio. STORIA DELLE MONETE DELLA REPUBBLICA FIORENTINA DATA IN LUCE DA IGNAZIO ORSINI ACCADEMICO FIORENTINO, APATISTA, E SOCIO COLOMBARIO. Firenze: Nella Stamperia di Pietro Gaetano Viviani, 1760. 4to, contemporary tan quarter calf with mottled boards; spine with five raised bands, ruled and decorated in gilt; red morocco spine label, gilt; all page edges speckled red. Title printed in red and black with excellent engraved printer's device by Francesco Allegrini after Giuseppe Zocchi; lvi, 327, (1) pages; woodcut illustrations of coins in the text; hundreds of additional mintmasters' marks printed from woodcuts in the margins; 6 unsigned plates depicting coins, the first two of which are engraved and the others woodcut. Binding rubbed and a bit worn at extremities, but contemporary and still rather handsome. A very good or better copy. A very scarce and impressive work on Florentine coinage of the 14th through 16th centuries. Similar in many respects to the author's 1756 Storia delle monete de' Granduchi di Toscana della Casa de' Medici e di quelle dell' augustissimo imperatore Francesco di Lorena come granduca di Toscana. The present work is important for transcribing the text of the Fiorinaio (or Libro di zecca), a manuscript held in the State Archive of Florence, from 1317 to 1533, at which point the practice of using mintmaster marks was discontinued. These marks are illustrated throughout Orsini's text, making it an important early reference on the subject. (See Ferdinando Bassoli's discussion of this work in his Monete e medaglie nel libro antico dal XV al XIX secolo [pages 57–58], noting that this passage is inaccurate in the English translation.) While Dekesel lists a similar number of copies of the present work as he does for the Tuscan volume, this seems to appear significantly less often in the trade. Dekesel O74. Lipsius 300. Scandaliato Ciciani (La letteratura numismatica nei secoli XVI–XVIII: dalle raccolte della Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte, 1980) 23.