The Study of Ancient Coins

Zaccaria, Francesco Antonio. ISTITUZIONE ANTIQUARIO-NUMISMATICA O SIA INTRODUZIONE ALLO STUDIO DELLE ANTICHE MEDAGLIE DELL’ABATE FRANCESCO ANTONIO ZACCARIA. IN QUESTA SECONDA EDIZIONE ACCRESCIUTA DI UNA LETTERA DEL PADRE PAOLO MARIA PACIAUDI SOPRA L’UTILITA' DELLO STUDIO DELLE MEDAGLIE. Venezia: Nella Stamperia Baglioni, 1793. 8vo, slightly later vellum-backed mottled boards; spine ruled in gilt with red and black spine labels, gilt. xii, 380 pages; woodcut title vignette; woodcut initials, headpieces and tailpieces; folding tables; 3 engraved folding plates of ancient coins. Contents foxed. Very good or better. Rare. Of the 1772 first edition, Bassoli notes: “Its author, the Jesuit Franceso Antonio Zaccaria (1714–1795), was successor of the founders of the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, and reviewer of all Italian literary and scientific publications in the years 1748–1755 in his Storia Letteraria d’Italia. He sets out in a clear and regular style the fundamental points of numismatics as they were understood at the time; here again, we have the history of the coin, its chronology, full lists of inscriptions and abbreviations, and types and symbols, and even a ‘specimen’ of fake coins on the market at the time” (pages 34–35). In this second edition, the Jesuit author, who died a short two years after publication, augmented his work with a 1748 letter by the Theatine priest Paciaudi on the value of studying ancient coins. Dekesel Z7. Not in Lipsius.