Goriiiany, 1 lollanci, and S|5ain. Their authors ''" 

 ol'lcii icIU'clccl new linids in research, such as attempts 

 to approach [)roblenis of melrolotfv or the vahie of 

 ancient coins. 



First ]:>hice among them certainly belongs to the 

 French scholar Giiillauine Bude (1467-1540), a 

 friend of Francis I. Bude won repute for an excellent 

 collection of Greek and Roman coins, which he used 

 as the basis for De asse li jmrtihus ejus, one of the most 

 famous numismatic works of the [)eriod. Fublislied 

 in 1515, it was re{)rinti-d in 16 subsequent editions ijy 

 1550. 



Wilibald Pirckheimer in Germany, with his 

 Aestimatio priscorum numismatum (1533), Henricus 

 Mameranus, with his Priscae monetae ad hiiius nostri 

 lemporis diversas aliquot nationum monetas supputatio (1550), 

 and Didacus Covarrubias y Leyva in Spain, with his 

 Veterum numismatum collntw eum his quae modn expen- 

 dunlur (1556) arc only a few of the authors who tried to 

 explain to contemjioraries the significance of ancient 

 coins. The iiistory of prices, the juridical problems of 

 false coins, and the technical aspects of coin manufac- 

 ture are some of the other questions which were dis- 

 cussed and to which the Germans Georg Bauer 

 [Agricola] {De mensuris el pondenbus Romanorum alque 

 Graecorum, 1550) and Joachim Camerarius (Historia 

 rei nummariae Graeeorum et Lalinorum, 1556) tried to 

 bring new answers. 



Fig. II. — Tetr.\i)r,\chm of Lvsimachi's of 

 Thrace, as reprosciiuxl by Rouille, and actual 

 coin (photo from Rouille and author's photo). 



In 1511 Margareta Pcutingcr, wife of the German 

 humanist Gonrad Peutinger, sent to her brother 

 C:hristoph W'elser, for publication, a numismatic 

 paper on the titles of Roman emperors. For the 

 same peri(;d Ernest Babelon '''' reports the name of 



Wolfgang Lazius (1514-1563), a \'icnnese doctor who, 

 in his Commentatiorum vetustalorum numismatum (1558), 

 first conceived the idea of a "corpus nummorum," 

 compendium of all the coins of antiquity — a gigantic 

 project which has seemed too ambitious even for mod- 

 ern numismatists. 



5? Sec listings in Li'sciiin von Ebfngruuth, Allgcineine Miinz- 

 hmde, pp. 709; Bfrmiart, IlmMticli, pp. 3-4; Babelon, Traili, 

 vol. 1, cols. 99 ff. 



'» Babklon, 'Iraile, vol. 1, col. 99. 



Fig. 12. — Ch'ii.i.Ai'ME Bude (1467-1540), Di- 

 rector of the Bibliothequc Xationalc, Paris 

 (photo courtesy Bibliothequc Xationalc). 



In Italy I'uKio Orsini (Fuhius Ursinus), called the 

 "father of ancient iconography," gained a wide repu- 

 tation not only through his treatise on ancient por- 

 traits. Imagines et elogia virorum illustrium et eruditorum 

 ex antiques lapidibus et numismatihus expressa (1570), but 

 also through his large collection of coins, manu- 

 scripts, and books, and through his exceptional 

 al)ility to detect false coins. His correspondence and 

 travels brought him into contact with scholars and 

 collectors in many countries, who, in turn, approached 

 him on numerous occasions for his opinion as to the 

 authenticity of certain pieces. 



18 



BULLETIN 229: CONTRIBUTIONS I- ROM TME MUSEUM (5F HISIORV .AND TECHNOLOGY 



