Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.52064/vamz.58.1.2
Alberto Fortis and the advancement of numismatics in the late 18th century
Paolo Visonà
orcid.org/0000-0002-2140-0316
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Alberto Fortis, a Paduan “naturalist-antiquarian” of the late Enlightenment,
played a significant role in the development of numismatics
as an evidence-based discipline in the last quarter of
the 18th century. Fortis knew about ancient and medieval coins
and believed that coin finds were significant historical markers.
He noted various coin finds during his travels in Dalmatia. These
findings suggested to the readers of his most important book,
Viaggio in Dalmazia, that Dalmatia had a long and distinguished
history of monetary use. Fortis was also one of the first scholars
who recorded coins of Issa, Pharos, Scodra, and Corcyra while
he was in Dalmatia. His interest in the issues of the Greek and
Illyrian mints of the eastern Adriatic region is attested by a series
of letters written over a 20-year period beginning in the early 1770s. These letters reveal that from the early 1780s to the early
1790s Fortis acquired coins from southern Italy on behalf of the
Paduan Marquis T. degli Obizzi, and that he also asked his friends
J. Bajamonti, R. A. Michieli Vitturi, and M. Sorkočević to send him
coins from Dalmatia. Fortis’ direct observations and comments
on the coins of Issa, Pharos, Scodra, and Corcyra, which he communicated
to F. Neumann, an Austrian numismatist, represent
his most salient contribution to the identification and study of
these issues.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
335124
URI
Publication date:
8.9.2025.
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