Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This is the first book to study in detail the workings of a pre-modern mint. Based on two coin hoards of 5,000 and 14,000 coins, documentary evidence and scientific analysis, Stahl presents a history of Zecca from its origins in the 9th century to 1423 and the dominance of this Venetian currency in Mediterranean trade. Subsequent sections focus on the mechanisms of controlling the bullion and the role of the mint and the coinage it produced in Venetian trade and government. The processes by which the bullion was transformed into coins, the personnel involved, lists of holders of offices at the mint and summaries of the major coin types, are all included.
Synopsis
Winner of the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Award in Economics from the Association of American Publishers
Within a few months of assuming the position of curator of medieval coins at the American Numismatic Society in 1980, Alan M. Stahl was presented with a plastic bag containing a hoard of 5,000 recently discovered coins, most of which turned out to be from medieval Venice. The course of study of that hoard (and a later one containing more than 14,000 coins) led him to the Venetian archives, where he examined thousands of unpublished manuscripts. To provide an even more accurate account of how the Zecca mint operated in Venice in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries, Stahl commissioned scientific analyses of the coins using a variety of modern techniques, uncovering information about their content and how they had been manufactured. The resulting book, Zecca: The Mint of Venice in the Middle Ages, is the first to examine the workings of a premodern mint using extensive research in original documents as well as detailed study of the coins themselves.
The first of the book's three sections traces the coinage of Venice from its origins in the ninth century as a minor, and unofficial, regional Italian coinage to its position at the dawn of the Renaissance as the dominant currency of Mediterranean trade. The second section, entitled The Mint in the Life of Medieval Venice, illustrates the mechanisms of the control of bullion and the strategies for mint profit and explores the mint's role in Venetian trade and the emergence of a bureaucratized government. The third section, Within the Mint, examines the physical operations that transformed raw bullion into coins and identifies the personnel of the mint, situating the holders of each position in the context of their social and professional backgrounds.
Illustrated with photos of Venetian coinage from the world's major collections, Zecca also includes a listing of all holders of offices related to the medieval Venetian mint and summaries of all major finds of medieval Venetian coins.
Synopsis
Within a few months of assuming the position of curator of medieval coins at the American Numismatic Society in 1980, Alan M. Stahl was presented with a plastic bag containing a hoard of 5,000 recently discovered coins, most of which turned out to be from medieval Venice. The course of study of that hoard (and a later one containing more than 14,000 coins) led him to the Venetian archives, where he examined thousands of unpublished manuscripts. To provide an even more accurate account of how the Zecca mint operated in Venice in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries, Stahl commissioned scientific analyses of the coins using a variety of modern techniques, uncovering information about their content and how they had been manufactured. The resulting book, Zecca: The Mint of Venice in the Middle Ages, is the first to examine the workings of a premodern mint using extensive research in original documents as well as detailed study of the coins themselves.
The first of the book's three sections traces the coinage of Venice from its origins in the ninth century as a minor, and unofficial, regional Italian coinage to its position at the dawn of the Renaissance as the dominant currency of Mediterranean trade. The second section, entitled The Mint in the Life of Medieval Venice, illustrates the mechanisms of the control of bullion and the strategies for mint profit and explores the mint's role in Venetian trade and the emergence of a bureaucratized government. The third section, Within the Mint, examines the physical operations that transformed raw bullion into coins and identifies the personnel of the mint, situating the holders of each position in the context of their social and professional backgrounds.
Illustrated with photos of Venetian coinage from the world's major collections, Zecca also includes a listing of all holders of offices related to the medieval Venetian mint and summaries of all major finds of medieval Venetian coins.
Synopsis
Zecca: The Mint of Venice in the Middle Ages, is the first book to explore a premodern mint using original documents and coins. Alan M. Stahl divides the book into three sections. The first section shows how thecoinage of Venice became the dominant currency in the Mediteranean by the time of the Renaissance. The second section, explores the mint's role in Venetian trade, the mechanisms of the control of the bullion and the strategies utilized for mint profit. The third section, explores the operations that transformed bullion into coins, while also examining and explaining the positions and personnel of the mint. Zecca, contains numerous photos of Venetian coinage, along with a listing of all holdes of office related to the Venetian mint. It also contains summaries of all the major finds of medieval coins.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [465]-480) and index.