"DENARII, OBOLS AND FLORINS" Coinage of Medieval and Early Modern Hungary - Dr Adrian Popescu

FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM SEMINAR ROOM
TUESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2007 1.15pm
LUNCHTIME TALKS
COINAGE OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN HUNGARY
"DENARII, OBOLS AND FLORINS"
Lecture by DR. ADRIAN POPESCU
Free entrance

COINS AND MEDALS
The Department of Coins and Medals embraces money in many different forms, from all parts of the world and spanning ancient to modern times, as well as medals since their origin in the Renaissance. With its rich collections and library, the Department is a centre for research and teaching in numismatics.

PROGRAMME
This talk will present an outline of Hungarian coinage which began with the minting of silver denarii under Hungary's first King, St. Stephen, in 1001. Its development will be illustrated through a selection of the most characteristc coins.
With its collection of about 200,000 numismatic objects, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, has one of the most important collections of all, and it holds one of the three greatest collections of ancient and medieval coins in Britain.

Fitzwilliam Museum
Department of Coins and Medals Some key dates:

1589 - Andrew Perne (c. 1519-1589) bequeathed his Roman coins to the University
c.1650 - English Civil War coins given by Sir Edward Coke’s daughter-in-law to Trinity College

1744 - Roger Gale’s collection of Roman coins bequeathed to the University
1816 - Foundation of Fitzwilliam Museum by Viscount Fitzwilliam
1848 - Fitzwilliam Museum opened to the public.
1864 - Leake Greek collection purchased
1906-12 - McClean Greek collection given
1923 - McClean Coin Room built
1930s - Most College collections deposited in Museum.
1975 - Grierson collection transferred to the Museum
1997 - Mossop Greek collection bequeathed

FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. The museum was founded in 1816 with the bequest of the library and art collec- tion of the 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam. The bequest included £100,000 to cause to be erected a good substantial museum repository .
The building was designed by George Basevi, completed by C.R. Cockerell and opened in 1848. The entrance hall is by Edward Middleton Barry and was completed in 1875. The museum has five departments: Antiquities, Applied Arts, Coins and Medals, Manuscripts and Printed Books and Paintings, Drawings and Prints. Paintings include masterpieces by Titian, Veronese, Rubens, Van Dyck, Frans Hals, Canaletto, Gainsborough, Constable, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne and Picasso.
Many items in the museum are on loan from colleges of the University, for example impressionist paintings owned by King's College.
There is the largest collection of 16th century Elizabethan virginal manuscript music written by some of the most notable composers of the time, such as William Byrd, Doctor John Bull Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Tallis. The Friends of the Fitzwilliam was founded in 1909 and is the oldest society in Britain devoted to supporting a museum.

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