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Monterchi, Giuseppe. Rariora maximi moduli numismata selecta ex bibliotheca eminentiss. & reverendiss. prinicpis Casp. Carpegnae [...].

Amsterdam, Hendrik Wetstein, 1685.

Large 12mo. (20), 168 pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With engraved frontispiece, 1 engraved plate of coins, and 22 full-page coin engravings in the text.

(Bound with) II: Bellorio, Giovanni Pietro. Selecti nummi duo Antoniniani, quorum primus anni novi auspicia, alter Commodum & Annium verum caesares exhibet. Ex bibliotheca emin. principis Camilli Cardinalis maximi. Ibid., 1685. 51, (1) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With 2 engravings of coins. Unsophisticated vellum-coloured boards, ca. 1900.

First Latin edition.

Catalogue of rare coins from the collection of the legal scholar and cardinal Gaspero Carpegna (1625-1714), edited by the Roman numismatist Giuseppe Monterchi (born ca 1630; cf. Jöcher). Previously published in Rome in 1679 as "Scelta de medaglioni piu rari"; translated from the Italian by J. H. Wetstein.

II: Third edition (frist published in Rome in 1671). The Antonine coins here under discussion show Emperor Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius's sons Commodus and M. Annius Verus.

Giampietro Bellori (1613-96) "made a living as an antiquarian and was one of the first professional researchers in contemporary art [...] Bellori became a prominent archaeologist and art expert and in a joint effort with the artist and engraver Pietro Santo Bartoli (1635-1700) he would publish several archaeological monographs [...] In 1670 he was appointed Antiquario di Roma by Pope Clement X [...] Bellori maintained close connections with France, was a close friend of Poussin and was rewarded by Colbert for his writings on antiquities. For a short period Bellori was in charge of Queen Christina's collection in Rome [...] His own collection of medals and other antiquities were, after his death, acquired by Frederick William I of Prussia" (Strandberg 34; cf. also Jöcher I, 940f.).

Trimmed rather closely in places, but clean. Front hinge splitting; otherwise a fine collection of two pretty late-17th century works on Imperial Roman coinage, issued thus by the publisher.

References

OCLC 13114949 & 13115956. Dekesel M 144 & B 83. Lipsius 266 & 35. Strandberg (Lovisa Ulrika Coll.) 120 & 34. Jöcher III, 637 (first work only).