BABELON. E. Ancient Numismatics and its History including a Critical Review of the Literature. 2004
A series of English translations, new editions, and original work, devoted to the study of various aspects of numismatic literature, including its origins, history and bibliography. Translated by Elizabeth Saville. La Numismatique et son Histoire remains the best, and perhaps only, comprehensive introduction to the history of ancient numismatics and its literature ever written. Originally published a century ago as the initial text of Ernest Babelon's remarkable Traité des Monnaies Grecques et Romaines, it is present here for the first time in an English translation, making Babelon's masterful survey available to a wider audience.Included in his work are trenchant chapters on the definition, object and scope of ancient numismatics; the utility of numismatics to science; and the origins of the subject.Subsequent chapters cover the history of numismatics and its literature from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Numismatics from 1836 to 1900 follows, comprising an extensive detailed survey of ancient numismatic literature arranged by country or locale, with emphasis on the main European centres of numismatic research in the nineteenth century. Careful listings of multi-volume works and bibliographies of specific authors dating from the sixteenth century - information practically unavailable elsewhere - are combined with data on numismatic works of key importance then, and perhaps even now, some of which have largely been forgotten in the interim. The work closes with an invaluable survey of Sale catalogues of Major Collections of Ancient Coins sold in the Nineteenth Century. An index of authors is included.Andrew Burnett, Deputy Director of the British Museum has summed it up well: There is today a growing interest in the history of numismatics, as there is in the history of many other scholarly disciplines. In some subjects it is axiomatic that a clear understanding of past work is not only an essential prerequisite, exposing common assumptions, but essential also in planning the focus of future work. There is very little published in any language on the subject, and nothing in English on the subject as a whole. Even though Ernest Babelon's account is a hundred years old, it is a classic, and this new translation will open up the field to a much greater range of scholars.Ernest Charles François Babelon (1854-1924) was Director of the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris, and the author of many authoritative works on ancient Greek coins. Published over a quarter of a century, the nine-volume Traité des Monnaies Grecques et Romaines remains his greatest contribution to numismatics. In her 1985 Numismatic Bibliography, Elvira Clain-Stefanelli terms the Traité a monumental work, essential for the scholar. This 248 page English translation, though encompassing the information of bibliographic and historical interest, is but a portion of the introductory volume of the whole work. Its publication brings to fruition a twenty-five year dream to make this treasure trove of historical and practical information on the entire range of ancient numismatic literature - from the beginning of the sixteenth to the close of the nineteenth century - available to those unable to read the original French.
£40
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