Sambon, On the coins of the southern provinces of Italy from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, edited by Lombardi

Arthur Sambon, On the coins of the southern provinces of Italy from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, edited by Luca Lombardi, Preface by Giuseppe Ruotolo, work published under the aegis of the Italian Academy of Numismatic Studies, Biblionumis Edizioni, Terlizzi 2015, pp. XXV, 256, richly illustrated, 31 x 25 cm, editorial hardback or half leather, ISBN 978-88-99512-00-2.

After 100 years from its realization, the unpublished work of Arthur Sambon "On the coins of the southern provinces of Italy from the XII to the XV century" is published. Identified over time with heterogeneous titles - among the best known: "The coins of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily" and "Normans, Swabians, Angevins" -, before this publication the work of Sambon (1866-1947) could have been studied and appreciated only by those very few numismatists who were lucky enough to possess it in the form of proofs. Never widespread and commercialized for reasons that have remained unexplained, the effort of the illustrious Neapolitan numismatist wanted to be part of an ambitious publishing project, never completed, which at the beginning of the twentieth century had the objective of analyzing all the coins of the South minted from the seventh to the nineteenth century. century. The volume examines in detail the coins indicated in the title: it opens with the analysis of the coins of Roger II (1130) and ends for the continental section with the coins of Duke Giovanni d'Angiò struck in the name of his father Renato, who claimed the throne of Naples (1459-1464), and for the part that refers to Sicily with the issues in the name of Ferdinand I the Catholic (1412-1416). Despite its unprecedented character, Sambon's work has become a fundamental text for scholars in the sector, so much so that it is highly cited and considered in the most important volumes of scientific interest, published in recent decades, dedicated to medieval coins of southern Italy. and Sicily. The interest in the work is also due to the careful critical analysis of the coins carried out by the author in the light of a myriad of documents that no longer exist, because they were destroyed during the Second World War, whose existence we learn from reading the text. Published today by Luca Lombardi with a Preface by Giuseppe Ruotolo, the work was printed in a limited number of copies and in a particularly accurate editorial format. Of large format, the volume is in fact published on ivory paper and bound with a cardboard cover. A very limited number of copies, just 10, is available with handcrafted binding consisting of fine leather, marbled paper, ribs, friezes and titles in gold on the spine. As proof of the exceptional nature of this publishing event, the publication is made under the aegis of the Italian Academy of Numismatic Studies.

On request we send images of the work with leather binding.