Bellini - Dell’Antica Lira Ferrarese - 1754

LA LIRA MARCHESANA DI FERRARA: FIRST AND ONLY EDITION OF 1754 WITH THE RARE COMPENDIUM
Important eighteenth-century work by Vincenzo Bellini dedicated to the “lira marchesana,” the ideal coin used for centuries in the Ferrara economy. First and only edition, published in Ferrara in 1754 and based on nearly thirty years of documentary and archival research. The volume is illustrated with numerous numismatic depictions, with 84 coin engravings inserted into the text. Coupled with the very rare Compendio published by Francesco Leopoldo Bertoldi in 1820, conceived as a complement and reference tool to Bellini’s work. A set particularly interesting for the history of numismatics, economy, and medieval and Renaissance Italian monetization.

WHY TO BUY
FIRST AND ONLY EDITION – First and only edition of Bellini’s work, Ferrara 1754, one of the classic texts of eighteenth-century Ferrara numismatics.
84 COIN ILLUSTRATIONS – Rich iconographic apparatus with 84 engravings depicting coins, integrated directly into the historical and documentary discussion.
RARE 1820 COMPENDIUM – The volume is augmented with the rare Compendio by Francesco Leopoldo Bertoldi, Bellini’s pupil and collaborator and his successor in Ferrara’s museum milieu; already by the late nineteenth century it was described as an “extremely rare” pamphlet.
HISTORY OF MONEY AND ECONOMY – Pioneering study reconstructing the value and circulation of the lira marchesana through archival documents, contracts, prices, real coins, and economic events of the Ferrara territory.

MARKET VALUE
This copy also includes an uncommon element: Bertoldi’s 1820 Compendium bound together with the main work. Considering completeness, overall freshness, rich monetary apparatus, and the presence of the rare nineteenth-century supplement, a retail valuation of €450–650 seems appropriate.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Modern binding in gray half-cloth with light corners and spine. Two works bound in one volume. Title page printed in red and black with an engraved embellishment. Dedication to Count Bartolomeo Masi and to the Savi of the Maestrato of Ferrara. Numerous initial heads, decorative initials, and 84 engravings of coins in the text. Some physiological foxing, especially in the second booklet; traces of time and occasional handwritten notes in the Compendio. In old books with a centuries-long history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. This listing contains AI Visuals. The images are an integral part of the description. Pages: (2); 10; 208; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Dell’antica lira ferrarese.
In Ferrara, 1754. Printed by Bernardino Pomatelli, Archbishop’s Printer.
Vincenzo Bellini.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The “lira marchesana” should not be understood simply as a single physical coin, but as a monetary unit of account used in the Ferrara territory over centuries. Bellini reconstructed its evolution through extensive archival documentation, comparing coins, face values, prices, and public acts. Treccani regards the work as a notable example of historical description of an ideal coin, conducted through the fortunes of its circulation and based on systematic examination of every available document. The work thereby attains an interest that goes beyond mere numismatics: it allows observation of the concrete functioning of money in society, in contracts, payments, legal relations, and changes in the value of goods. According to nineteenth-century testimony, the work acquired such authority that it was used to resolve legal questions related to the Ferrara territory. Bertoldi recalled that Bellini’s research was the result of nearly thirty years of work on codes and parchments. The 1820 Compendium significantly completes the whole: Bertoldi synthesize and makes the main results of the vast eighteenth-century dissertation more readily consultable.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHORS
Vincenzo Bellini was born in Gambulaga, in the Ferrara region, in 1708 and died in Ferrara in 1783. Ecclesiastic and numismatist, he was parish priest at Cassana from 1737 to 1758 and later curator of the museum established in Ferrara around his important collections. He was a key figure in the development of Italian studies on medieval coinage in the eighteenth century. In addition to the present work, he published De monetis Italiae medii aevi, with subsequent supplements, and Delle monete di Ferrara. His research was regarded by contemporaries as continuous with the great numismatic studies of Muratori and Carli. Francesco Leopoldo Bertoldi (1737–1824), canon, historian and antiquarian of Argenta, was a collaborator of Bellini and active in Ferrara’s museum and antiquarian scene. He produced over forty publications on historical, archaeological, and numismatic topics.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Dell’antica lira ferrarese appeared in Ferrara in 1754 at Bernardino Pomatelli. Bibliographies and old catalogs indicate it as the first and only edition. The work quickly gained notoriety. It was favorably reviewed in the immediate years following and contributed, along with Bellini’s other studies, to the growth of Italian medieval numismatics as a discipline founded on source analysis. Sixty-six years later, in 1820, Francesco Leopoldo Bertoldi published in Ferrara the Compendium of the most notable contents of the Dissertation, at Gaetano Bresciani. Nineteenth-century numismatic bibliography expressly notes the volume and underscores its rarity. The presence of the two publications bound in the same volume thus allows following both the original eighteenth-century elaboration and the subsequent nineteenth-century reception and systematization of Bellini’s work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Bellini, Vincenzo, Dell’antica lira ferrarese di Marchesini detta volgarmente Marchesana, Ferrara, Bernardino Pomatelli, 1754.
Bertoldi, Francesco Leopoldo, Compendio delle cose più notabili contenute nella Dissertazione dell’antica Lira ferrarese di Marchesini detta Marchesana di Vincenzo Bellini, Ferrara, Gaetano Bresciani, 1820.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, entry Vincenzo Bellini.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, entry Francesco Leopoldo Bertoldi.
Gnecchi, Francesco e Ercole, Saggio di bibliografia numismatica delle zecche italiane medioevali e moderne, entry Ferrara.
Luppi, Costantino, Vincenzo Bellini, in Rivista Italiana di Numismatica, 1889.
Ranghiasci, Bibliografia numismatica, F/18.
Lozzi, Biblioteca istorica della antica e nuova Italia, n. 1620.
Catalogo Einaudi, n. 390.
ICCU / SBN, repertori bibliografici italiani delle opere di Bellini e Bertoldi.