Vol. V.} 
language of government, not the lan- 
guage of private individuals, confound- 
mg the cuftoms of. remote periods, and 
of © different nations, 
forth their own praifes, and prefenting 
you with reprefentations of their own 
perfons. Mint-matters. were appointed 
by the government, and the devices, 
more particularly in the purer days of 
the republic, were fignificant and in- 
ftructive. Every event of national im- 
portance is recorded on them, and many 
are noticed, that are left unrecorded by 
the hiftorian: fo that ancient coins may 
be confidered as monuments thrown over 
the devaftation of ages, or perhaps, 
more properly as cabinets, in which are 
preferved the arcana of ancient hittory. 
* Baron Spanheim, who, with {ome 
diffufenefs, has 
medals, eftablithes their importance frem 
thefe long. confiderations: firft from the 
injury of barbarous times, which tranf- 
mitted ‘the hiftory of the firft ages in an 
imperfe& form: fecondly, from the con- 
tradictions of the Greek and Roman 
hiftorians: thirdly, from the character 
ef hiftorians, who, through hatred, par- 
tiality, or negligence, have miftated facts: 
fourthly, from the conduét of hiftorians, 
in many réfpects of great authority, but 
who have omitted circumftances of the 
utmoft confequence to the perfettion 
and integrity of hiftory *. | 
The medal, faithful to its charge of fame, 
Through climes and ages bears each form and 
name: 
In one fhort view fubjeéted to our eye, 
Gods, emp’rors, heroes, fages, beauties lie. 
In like manner, the dates of remarka- 
ble events have been fixed, which, but 
for the light derived from ancieat medals, 
would. have been unknown; fo that the 
ftudy of coins may affitt chronolocy: the 
names of various cities have. been reftored, 
and light has been thrown on ancient 
geography; the remembrance of rematka- 
ble cufloms has been prelerved; the form 
not only of the Greek and Roman let- 
ters, but of the Phoenician, the Hebrew, 
and Samaritan have been afcertained ; 
and other particulars, throwing light on 
hiftory, have been elucidated, confirming 
dubious facts, or difproving erroneous 
ftatements. | 
3. The medals of antiquity have been 
beneficial in the art of painting. ‘This 
Fn a ea TE ST 
* Ezechielis Spanheim Differtatio de pre- 
ftantia et ufu numifmatum antiquorum, 
P 97+ 
Mr. Dyer on Coind. 
or trumpeting ~ 
written on the ufe of 
543 
divine art was advanced to great perfec- 
tion by the Greeks. But where are the 
immediate proofs of its excellence? They 
are perifhed.. The very few remains of 
| the Grecian painters rather create forrow 
and regret, than pleafure and fatisfac- 
tion. ~ Even Apelles only lives in repit- 
tation. The Venus, that obtained fo 
many admirers; the Alexander, with 
his thunder, that ftruck horror into be- 
holders; thofe prodigies of kill, the pro- 
duétions of Parrhafius, Zeuxis, and 
Protogenes, are now no more: {fo perifli- 
able are the moft exquifite exhibitions of 
the art of painting! The beautiful fimile 
of Cicero comparing the republic of his 
time to a picture perifhing through age, 
and lofing its genuine colours and lines, 
conveys a ferious and affecting truth, that 
one of the mot fafcinating arts is the 
moft fleeting, and indebted for its re- 
membrance to foreign affiftance: 
The importance of medals, with re- 
gard to painting, confifts not merely in 
their exhibiting patterns or exemplars, 
executed with tafte and ingenuity, but in 
their being, m fome inftances, the only 
means of preferving the defigns of the 
moft perfeét matters of painting. Nor 
need it furprife us, that painters have fo 
much contributed to promote the ftudy of 
medals. Pifani, Bolderi, and other paint- 
ers, firlt revived it in the 15th century : 
Raphael had thoroughly ftudied the fub- 
ject, as well as Le Brun, and Rubens had 
a fine collection in his own poffefiion. 
It has been frequently obferved, that 
painters, ftatuaries, and medallifts worked 
from the fame defigns. ‘The moft beau- 
tiful ftatues extant, all of them, make 
their appearance on ancient coins, though 
the figures that reprefent them «ere never 
conceived to be copies\of ftatues, till the 
copies themfelves were difcovered. This 
is true of the Hercules in the Farnefe Pa- 
lace; the Venus de Medicis; the Apollo 
in the Belvidera; and the celebrated 
Marcus Aurelius on horfeback +. 
4. The fourth ufe, that I fhall-men- 
tion, to which the ftudy of ancient medals 
may be rendered fubfervient, is, to illu- 
ftrate the ancient poets. 
When it is recollected that the mint, 
as before obferved, was, in ancient times, 
entirely under the direftion of govern-~ 
ment; that the medallift and the poet 
frequently worked from the fame models, 
lived at the fame period, and were habi- 
tuated to the fame cuftoms; it is a natural © 
+ See Addifon’s Dialogues on the ufeful- 
nefs of -_ Medals, dial. i. 
confequsnce, 
