Six Original Volumes of CNI

Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 2145. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Corpus Nummorum Italicorum] King Vittorio Emmanuel III. Primo tentativo di un catalogo generale delle monete medievali e moderne coniate in Italia o da Italiani in altri paesi. Volume XV: Roma Parte I-dalla caduta dell’Impero d’Occidente al 1572. (Rome, 1934). (v), 552 pages, 28 plates mostly of photographs, with some drawings. Un-cut and un-opened. Original printed paper wraps, as issued prior to being bound in the formal dark blue leather or cloth covers. Fine condition, covers tattered, slight foxing to the plates.

A sumptuous publication, on heavy water-marked paper, of the most comprehensive private collection of Italian coins ever formed, published in 20 volumes between 1910 and 1943. Although Vittorio Emmanuel could call on the talents of all prominent numismatists in Italy, it is likely he contributed an immense amount of personal labor to this work. The king would spend several hours every morning working on his collection prior to taking up affairs of state. It is amazing what one can accomplish, when backed by the resources of an entire kingdom. The last volume, on Naples, is one of the rarest original numismatic publications, only some 100 copies being printed under wartime conditions. After Vittorio Emmanuel’s downfall in 1946 the collection reverted to the new republic.