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NUMISMATOLOGY NUNCIOS. 



tions. in which the chief attention had been paid to 

 striking impressions. The earliest treatise upon nu- 

 mismatics was published by a Spaniard, Antonio 

 Agostino, in 1577, in his dialogues, which have been 

 translated into all languages. Jac. and Octav. Stra- 

 da, by works illustrated with plates, drew the atten- 

 tion of the great and the rich to this subject. Wolf- 

 gang Laziiis, physician to Ferdinand I., made use of 

 coins for the illustration of history. Fulvio Orsini 

 and Ad. Occo, a physician at Augsburg, applied 

 themselves to the study of the Roman family and 

 imperial coins ; and it is to be regretted that the lat- 

 ter restricted himself so much in his inquiries, for his 

 process, with respect to chronological arrangement, 

 was confessedly good. Hub. Goltz, the son of a 

 painter of Wurtzburg, is particularly worthy of men- 

 tion, as the first who paid much attention to Grecian 

 coins ; but there is a want of accuracy in the writers 

 of that period, which renders a great part of their 

 labours useless. Goltz was at once a draughtsman 

 and an engraver, but suffered himself to introduce so 

 much of his own invention into his engravings of 

 coins, that they are liable to suspicion in many cases 

 where they may have been correct. Meanwhile, the 

 art of imitating the genuine antique coins began to 

 be practised. At first, without any intention of de- 

 ceiving, but merely to facilitate the study, the skilful 

 die-cutters, Cavino, Belli, &c., at Padua, Parma, and 

 Vicenza, made imitations of ancient coins ; but these 

 imitations were afterwards passed off for genuine, 

 and soon became an article of trade, which has con- 

 tinued to this day. See Sestini's Sopra i moderni 

 Falsificatori di Medaglie Greche antiche, etc. (Flo- 

 rence, 1826, 4to.) 



The great numbers of counterfeit coins deterred 

 many, during the period which now commenced, from 

 the study of numismatics ; at least, it lessened the 

 taste for this study, always difficult on account of the 

 learned apparatus necessary ; but the researches into 

 separate departments of the science became more 

 extensive, and the works of Vaillant, Spanheim, J. J. 

 Gessner, Pellerin, not to mention numerous others, 

 who have applied immense stores of learning to the 

 illustration and explanation of numismatics, are well 

 worthy of attention, though they are not to be im- 

 plicitly trusted. The materials had now so much 

 increased by the accumulation of newly-discovered 

 pieces (Vaillant visited the East several times ; Pel- 

 lerin added to the Parisian cabinet alone 33,000 an- 

 cient coins), that a critical selection and arrangement 

 of the genuine became doubly necessary, in order to 

 facilitate a general survey of them. Joseph Eckhel 

 undertook this task with success, and, by a strict geo- 

 graphical and chronological method, introduced so 

 much order into this science, that great light was 

 shed upon many obscure points of history and archae- 

 ology. His system was first practically applied by 

 himself to the arrangement of the cabinet at Vienna, 

 and afterwards presented in an improved form in his 

 great work Doctrina Numorum veterum (Vienna, 

 1792 98, 8 vols., 4to.), to which all later researches 

 can only be considered as additions or improvements. 

 Domenico Sestini followed this system in his works 

 upon the numismatic Hennae Letters e Dissertazione 

 Numismatiche (10 vols.); Mionnet, in his Descr. des 

 Medailles Grecques antiques (a fifth supplementary 

 volume of which has already appeared). The inves- 

 tigations into the mixtures of metals, and the execu- 

 tion of the stamps ; the form, size, weight, value, and 

 number of the ancient coins ; their genuineness or 

 spuriousness, become susceptible of more certainty, 

 by the accumulation of materials of comparison ; and 

 the understanding of the types and legends is also 

 facilitated by similar means. The coins of the middle 

 ages, which have from time to time been brought to 



light, are now sought for with zeal. By pursuing 

 the same method with the modern as with the ancient 

 coins, arranging them in a strictly chronological or- 

 der, they have oeen made to shed light upon subjects 

 which manuscripts had left unexplained. 



The separate works upon the coins of different 

 countries, such as those by Lastoiiaso for Spain, Za- 

 netti for Italy, Le Blanc for France, Leake tor Eng- 

 land, Bicherodt for Denmark, &<:., Becker for Ger- 

 many, Voigt for Bohemia, and others, afford a mass 

 of materials, but are sometimes open to criticism. 

 We should here also mention K. F. W. Erbstein's 

 Numismatic Fragments relative to Saxon History, 

 together with an Appendix of the remarkable Coins 

 of the Middle Ages (Dresden, 1827, in German ; 

 and Chr. .Tak. Goetz's Imperial German Coins of the 

 Middle Ages, containing 600 coins from Charlemagne 

 to Maximilian I., in fifty-two lithographic plates, with 

 descriptions (Dresden, 1828). The modern coins and 

 medals are more valuable as specimens of art than as 

 historical guides. They are, as Herder has remarked, 

 a striking proof of the varieties of taste. There a 

 view of the progress of numismatics is facilitated by 

 the splendid works, entitled Histoires Metalliques, 

 such as those of Louis XIV., XV., Napoleon, &c. 

 Some authors have treated of particular coins Lili- 

 enthal's Cabinet of Dollars (Thalercabinet); Koehler's 

 Cabinet of Ducats (Dukatencabinet) ; Boehme's Ca- 

 binet of Groschen (Groschencabinef), &c.; and this 

 method renders a more minute examination practi- 

 cable. L. Ch. Schmieder's Dictionary of Numisma- 

 tics Handworterbuch der gesammten Mllnzkundc 

 (Halle and Berlin, 1811 15) is a truly learned ma- 

 nual. The literature of numismatics is prolific ; and 

 there are several works which will assist the student 

 in a general view of the science, such as Banduri Bib- 

 liotheca Nummaria, seu Auctorum qui de Re Numma- 

 ria scrips., ed. a I. A. Fabricio (Hamburg, 1719, 4to); 

 Lipsius Bibliotheca Nummaria, etc, (Leipsic, 1801,2 

 vols.) ; but a work is yet wanting which shall give a 

 full view of the actual state of the science. See also 

 Pinkerton's Essay on Medals (2 vols. , 8vo, London, 

 1789) ; Evelyn's Numismata (folio, 1697) ; and Addi- 

 son's Dialogues on ancient Medals (London, 1726). 



NUNCIOS ; the persons sent by the pope on fo- 

 reign missions which concern ecclesiastical affairs. 

 (See Legate). The Roman bishops had agents at the 

 court of the emperors from the fourth century, under 

 the name of apocrisiarii and responsales. It was not 

 till the ninth century, that the increasing power of the 

 pope occasioned extraordinary missions of legates to 

 provincial synods and foreign courts, when subjects 

 of great importance were to be considered. In the 

 eleventh century, Nicholas II. and Alexander II. 

 sent such representatives ad visitandas provincias, to 

 root out heresies, with unlimited power a measure 

 of which Gregory VII. and his successors, of course, 

 eagerly availed themselves. The legates presided at 

 the synods which they convoked, and decided in the 

 most important ecclesiastical affairs. Many bishops 

 procured the office of legate for themselves, in order 

 to prevent the entrance of foreign legates into their 

 dioceses ; but neither this precaution, nor the open 

 resistance of the German bishops, could prevent th 

 inroads of papal power. England freed herself froi 

 this intrusion by having the archbishop of Canter 

 bury declared perpetual legate in the twelfth century, 

 and Philip the Fair, king of France, even dared to 

 arrest a papal legate, in the fourteenth century. The 

 German bishops had succeeded, down to the fifteenth 

 century, in preventing the establishment of perma- 

 nent legates, and their tribunals ; but, when the re- 

 formation pressed the German Catholic church ex- 

 tremely hard, the pope succeeded in introducing them. 

 Thus originated four permanent nuntiatura;, will) 





