Books and ancient coins from the collections of the University Library of Padua and the Bottacin Museum.

Printed books and coins are the most numerous objects ever produced by man, although obviously designed for very different purposes.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, many volumes dealt with coins, combining historical and numismatic interest with undeniable artisticqualities and high-quality illustrations. On this occasion the ancient coins and their representations of paper engraved in the books dedicated tothem will be put into dialogue : from the pioneering sixteenth-century treatises by Enea Vico and Sebastiano Erizzo, to the works of the FrenchmanCharles Patin, but Paduan by adoption, to those of Jean Vaillant and to the very elegant publications of the Veronese Jacopo Muselli it will bepossible to go over briefly the richness and complexity of the numismatic literature and the fineness of its products.

The exhibition, entitled Sotto il torchio. Books and ancient coins from the collections of the University Library of Padua and the BottacinMuseum, highlight one of the most interesting aspects of Venetian cultural life and in particular Padua, starting from the humanisticrenaissance: the rediscovery of classical antiquity conveyed precisely through the exchange and the study of Roman coinage, which favored thedevelopment of an intense editorial activity on the subject of numismatics.

The currency and the press have also shared since the sixteenth century the same technical production method, given by the use of thepress, so much so that from this moment both in the world of publishing and in that of the monetary issue the verb is used print.

There are studies related to classical Greek and Roman numismatics and volumes related to medieval Italian numismatics, particularly Venetian andPaduan, accompanied by some significant examples of coins. Among the exhibited works, there is a choice of splendid numismatic specimens from thecollection of books in the monastery of San Giovanni di Verdara.

Zuckermann Palace, 13 April - 9 June 2019

Info
free admission
hours 10: 00-19: 00, closed on non-working Mondays
tel. 049 8205664

To read the complete article, see:
Books and ancient coins from the collections of the University Library of Paduaand the Bottacin Museum. (http://padovacultura.padovanet.it/it/musei/sotto-il-torchio)

To read the CoinsWeekly article, see:
"Money and Books" in Padua (https://coinsweekly.com/money-and-books-in-padua/)