MEDAL. 
foreign ftates and princes, along with other valuable tefti- 
monies of his friendfhip. In a more advanced period of 
the Roman empire, however, individuals would undoubt¬ 
edly form collections of coins peculiar to their own ftate; 
for Dr. Stukeley, in his Medallic Hiftory of Caraufius, in¬ 
forms us, that a complete feries of filver coins was lately 
found in Britain, containing all the emperors down to 
Caraufius inclufively. From Banduri we alfo know, 
that certain Greek coins were fpecially preferved by the 
Romans ; and it appears from their code, that ancient 
gold and filver coins were made ufe of inltead of gems ; 
to which diftinCtion thofe of Sicily were particularly en¬ 
titled. 
The firft: among the moderns who began to Itudy the 
medallic fcience was Petrarch. Being defired by the em¬ 
peror Charles IV. to compofe a book containing the lives 
of eminent men, and to place him in the lift, with a noble 
pride he anfwered, that he would comply with his defire 
whenever the emperor’s future life and aCtions deferved it. 
Availing himfelf of this circumftance, he fent that mo¬ 
narch a collection of gold and filver coins of celebrated 
men : “ Behold,” fays he to the emperor, “ to what men 
you have fucceeded 1 behold whom you (hould imitate 
and admire ! to whole very form and image you (hould 
compofe your talents ! The invaluable prefent I (hould 
have given to nobody but you ; it was due to you alone. 
I can only know or defcribe the deeds of thefe great men : 
your fupreme office enables you to imitate them.” 
In the next age, Alphonfo, king of Arragon, caufed all 
the ancient coins that could be dilcovered throughout all 
the provinces of Italy, to be collected, which he placed in 
an ivory cabinet, and always carried with him ; that he 
might be excited to great a&ions by the prefence, as it 
were, of fo many illuftrious men in their images. This 
collection, however, from the circumftance mentioned, 
could not be very large. Anthony, cardinal of St. Mark, 
nephew of Eugene IV. who afcended the pontifical chair 
in 1431, had a vaft collection. Soon afterwards Cofmode 
Medici began the grand mufeum of the family of the Me¬ 
dici at Florence ; the molt ancient, as well as the mod 
noble, in the univerfe. Among a profufion of other mo¬ 
numents of ancient art, coins and medals were not neg¬ 
lected. About the lame period Matthias Corvinus, ’ting 
of Hungary, formed a noble collection of coins, along 
with ancient MSS. and other valuable reliques of an¬ 
tiquity. 
The firfl: p'erfon who feems to have examined medal-s in 
order to adduce them as vouchers of ancient orthography 
and cudoms, was Agnolo Poliziano, or Angelus Poli- 
tianus. Maximilian I. emperor of Germany, formed a 
cabinet of medals, by means of which Joannes Huttichius 
was enabled to publifti a book of the lives of the emperors, 
enriched with their portraits, delineated from ancient 
coins. M. Grollier, treafurer of the armies of France 
in Italy during part of the fixteenth century, had a great 
collection of coins in all metals. When, after the death 
of Grollier, thefe were about to be fent into Italy, the 
king of France bought them at a high price for his own 
cabinet of antiquities. Befides medals of brafs, this col¬ 
lection contained an affortment of gold and (ilver. Guil¬ 
laume du Chou!, a contemporary of Grollier, had alfo a 
good collection of medals, many of which were publifhed 
in his treatife on the religion of the ancient Romans, 
printed at Lyons in 1557. From the letters of Erafmus 
we learn, that the Itudy of medals was begun in the Low 
Countries about the beginning of the fixteenth century. 
About the middle of that century, Goltzius, a printer 
and engraver, travelled over a great part of Europe in 
fearch of coins and medals, for works relating to them 
■which he propofed to publifti. At this time, as he in¬ 
forms us, there were in the Low Countries 200 cabinets 
of medals, 175 in Germany, more than 380 in Italy, and 
about 200 in France : to which we may add about 500 
for our own country, which Goltzius did not vifit. The 
greater number, however, of thefe cabinets were of that 
Vol.XIV. No, 1014. 
801 
clafs called cafkets of medals, including from 100 to 
1000, or 2000, in number. 
If we except Italy, there are few countries, in which 
more ancient coins are found, than in Britain. Mr. Pin¬ 
kerton fufpeCts, that Camden was one of the firft, if not 
the very firft, of our writers, who produced medals in his 
works, and who muft have had a fmall collection. Speed’s 
Chronicle, publifhed in 1610, was illuftrated with coins 
from fir Robert Cotton’s cabinet. Henry prince of 
Wales bought the collection of Gorlteus, amounting, as 
Jofeph Scaliger fays, to 30,000 coins and medals, anti 
left it to his brother, Charles I. Archbithop Laud bought 
5500 coins for fix hundred pounds, and gave them to the 
Bodleian library. Thomas earl of Arundel and Surrey, 
earl-marfhal of England, had, in his exuberant collection 
of antiquities, a rich cabinet of medals, gathered by Daniel 
Nilfum. The dukes of Buckingham and Hamilton, fir Wil¬ 
liam Pafton, fir Thomas Fanfliaw, fir Thomas Hanmer, 
Ralph Sheldon, efq. Mr. Selden, and many more, are enu¬ 
merated by Mr. Evelyn, as having collections. To this 
number we may add the earl of Clarendon the hiftorian, 
and Charles I. The fine cabinet of this unhappy mo¬ 
narch was diffipated and loft in the civil commotions. 
Oliver Cromwell had alfo a fmall collection ; and that of 
Charles II. is mentioned by Vaillant in the preface to 
his treatife entitled Nummi in Coloniis, &c. This branch 
of magnificence has not been much attended to by fuc- 
ceeding Britifb monarchs ; though his prefent niajelty has 
a very good collection of gold coins, while his fubjedts 
have very few, efpecially iince the month of February 
1797 . 
A great number of fine cabinets have been formed in 
Britain fince the time of Evelyn. About the year 1720, 
Haym makes mention of thofe of the duke of Devonlhire, 
the earls of Pembroke and Winchelfea, fir Hans Sloane, 
fir Andrew Fontaine, Mr. Sadler, Mr. Abdy, Mr. Wren, 
Mr. Chicheley, and Mr. Kemp. At prefent there are 
many remarkable collections; as thofe of the duke of 
Devonfhire, the earl of Pembroke, earl Fitzwilliam, 
formerly the marquis of Rockingham’s, the Hon. Horace 
Walpole, the Rev. Mr. Cracherode, the Rev. Mr. South- 
gate, Mr. Townley, Mr. R. P. Knight, Mr. Edward 
Knight, Mr. Tyfon, Mr. Barker, Mr. Brown, Mr. Boo¬ 
tle, Mr. Hodful, Mr. Auften ; with Mr. Ord’s Egyptian, 
Mr. Louce’s fmall brafs, and Mr. Jackfon’s Britilh. 
We fliall add a (hort account of a few of the molt ce¬ 
lebrated public collections, not touched upon above. 
1. The Hunterian ColkElion, which is now in the pofief- 
fion of the univerfity of Glafgow, to which it was be¬ 
queathed by Dr. Hunter’s will, is one of the molt cele¬ 
brated in Europe. The foundation of this collection was 
laid in the year 1770, from thofe of the Rev. Mr. Dawes 
and Thomas Sadler, efq. The next'year added much to 
the ltock from- various cabinets, particularly that of 
Ifaac Jatnineau, his majerty’s conful at Naples. Mr. 
Sainthill, furgeon, in 1772, the prince of Peralta, and Mr. 
Weft in 1773, continued to enrich Dr. Hunter’s cabinet. 
In 1776, the Egyptian coins were much, increafed from 
the collections of Mr. J. Bruce, and Mr. C. Lindegreene, 
a Swede, who had refided in Egypt. Mr. Dorana added 
his collection to Dr. Hunter’s in the fame year; and it 
contained the accumulated treafures of many elegant febo- 
lars and eminent antiquaries. At the lame time, Mr, 
White fupplied, from his muleum, thole coins which were 
wanting in Dr. Hunter’s ; and, as if this year was to be 
diltinguiftied by the value of the acquifitions, and the 
characters of the benefaCtors, Dr. Ruliel fupplied thofe 
deficiencies which his ample collection enabled him to 
difeover. The year 1777 furnilhed it Ill additional (tores 
from Dr. Combe, a foreign nobleman, Mr. Swinton, 
Mr. j. Smith, the Rev. Dr. Eyre, and Mr. Samuel of 
Lincoln, and from numerous other benefaCtors. In the 
year 1782, Dr. Combe published his “ Niunmorum ve- 
terum Populorum et Urbiutn qui in Mufeo Gulielmi 
Huntef afiervantur Defcriptio ;” a highly ufeful work, in 
9 S which 
