Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-26
KING, NUM|SMAT|ST,
COMPLETES BOOK
Emmanuel, of Italy, Amazes
Publisher by Regularity Of
Volumes on Coins.

| ROME, Jan. 24.-The regularity
with which the successive volumes of
King Victor EmmanuePs great work
on the coins of Italy continue to ap-
pear from the press is amazing
italian publishers. Every volume has
appeared on the exact day mentioned
in the prospectus. Already the coins
of Piedmont, Sardinia, Liguria and
Corsica have been treated of In three
quarto volumes containing on the
average $50 pages each. The sub
ject of the present volume is the coins
| of Lombardy, emitting the products
of the minis of Milan, which will
have a separate volume devoted to
them.
Lombardy without Milan may seem
Hamlet without the Prince of Den
mark, but the Milanese sheets for
Volume v. are steadily passing
through the press. Meanwhile Man.
tua does a little to appease our i'm
patience for the magnificent series of
| Milanese portrait coins, although the
issues of the Marquis francesca II.
Gonzaga really do not stand compare
son with the Sforza series. We must
not, however. omit to notice the lit
| tie group of fine "testoons"-to use
the most convenient word for
Renaissance portrait-coins of vari-
Gus ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS represent
Giovanni II. Bentlvoglio, Lord of
| Bologna.
These coins are usually catalogued
under the mint of Antignate. a fief of
the House of Bentivoglio, situated in
the province of Bergamo, and there
fore they appear at the beginning of
| this volume. But there are still some
numismatists who cling to the old be-
| lief that these coins were struck in
the palace at Bologna. Apart from
their beauty, they derive an interest
from the fact that the dies were en-
graved by the well-known painter
Francia The bust on the coins bears,
in fact, an exact resemblance to the
fine relief portrait in San Giacomo
Maggiore at Bologna.
| And here a curious point arises.
| This relief has by many been attrib-
/ uted to Francia; yet below It is carved
in contemporary letters the signature,
Antonivs Bal. Annvm Agens XVIII,
/ AS proof of the contrary, we must
regard this relief as the work of An
tonic Bal, and truly a wonderful
achievement it Is for a boy OF eigh-
teen years. Now, if the only photo
graph available to us at the moment
deceive not, this bust is dated 14sz
on it's truncation. Yet Bentivoglio
only obtained the right of coinage
from the Emperor Macmillan two
years later than this, in 1494.
The busts on the coins and on the
relief are. as already stated, very close
to each other, SO close that it is diff.
cult to avoid the conclusion that one
is copied from the other. If our chro.
biological data are right, the coins are
copied from the relief; and IL the at
tributlon of the relief to young An
tonic Is right, and F'rancia really en-.
graved the dies of the coinage. ther
the great painter was content to TAKE
the idea of his work from a youth o.
eighteeni
But even if the date 1892 on the bus
is deceptive, the conclusion that thu
coins are copied from the relief, ant
not vice versa. seems to be indicated
almost beyond dispute by the fac
that the profile on the coins is turned
to the right, while on the relief 1t Il
to the left. For an artist copying {
coin in marble would naturally no
reverse the design; but die-engravel
copying a relief would more probabl!
than not sink his die with the profil,
in the same direction as the original
so that the final result would be re
versed.