Hubert Goltzius in Bruges
‘Hubert Goltzius of Würzburg, who with remarkable curiosity and indefatigable labour has traversed many countries in order to find, observe, and collect divers medals, and then share them with the rest of the world’.[1]
Antoine le Pois (1525–78) on Hubert Goltzius.
Born at Venlo, Hubert Goltzius (1526–83), became a painter, engraver, printer and numismatist whose works would not only define the parameters of numismatic research but also shed light on the extent of numismatic collections across sixteenth-century Europe. Worth acquired not only the Antwerp 1645 edition of his collected works but also some seminal individual texts. As Cunnally notes, Goltzius proved to be ‘the most prolific of the sixteenth-century numismatic writers’.[2]
Hubert Goltzius, Huberti Goltzi Opera omnia, 5 vols (Antwerp, 1645), v, Icones, p. 373: Ferdinand I (1503–64), Holy Roman Emperor.
Goltzius’ first book appeared in 1557 and was entitled Vivae omnium fere imperatorum imagines … (Antwerp, 1557).[3] It became a major publishing success, being translated into six languages.[4] The reasons for this are not hard to see: Goltzius provided his readers with attractive large medallion depictions of Caesars from Julius Caesar onwards, ending with an image of Ferdinand I (1503–64), Holy Roman Emperor, (subsequent editions brought the image tally of the early modern Holy Roman Emperors up-to-date). The images were striking and, as De Callatay notes, the polychrome process involved had been invented by Goltzius himself.[5] They were accompanied on the verso with a short biography of each emperor.
Hubert Goltzius, C. Iulius Caesar sive Historiae imperatorum Caesarumque Romanorum ex antiquis numismatibus restitutae … Accessit C. Iulii Caesaris vita et res gestae Huberto Goltz … auctore et sculptore (Bruges, 1563), plate I: ‘C. Julius Caesar Imperator’.
Goltzius’ next book, which concentrated on Julius Caesar and his contemporaries, appeared in 1563. It provided his readers with something more than an investigation of coinage from the early Roman empire. Crucially he included the results of his exploration of numismatic collectors in early modern Europe and his listing gives us invaluable information about the extent of numismatic collecting during his lifetime. In all, he listed 981 coin collections in his 1563 text, and his list provides much food for thought as it demonstrates the differences between the many collectors of the Southern Netherlands, who were, as De Callatay states, predominantly from the upper middle class, and the rather more aristocratic collectors elsewhere.[6] This points to the impact of the economy on collecting – the wealthy burghers, lawyers and physicians of the Southern Netherlands had the money to collect coinage – but it also points to the increasing vogue of collecting: it was no longer the preserve of kings and nobles. As De Callatay suggests, Goltzius’ list ‘put the Southern Netherlands at the forefront of the numismatic world around the middle of the sixteenth century’ – a position corroborated by the Dekesels’ exhaustive research.[7] Some of these collections were staggeringly large: the Flemish antiquarian Abraham Van Goorle (Gorlaeus, c. 1549–1608), owned around 11,000 coins, including 5,000 Roman coins, and 900 Greek coins.[8]
Goltzius’ travels had not solely been within the Low Countries and he offers his readers very useful data concerning the number of collections he encountered on his travels in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. He divided these by cities and it is perhaps unsurprising to see capitals like Rome, Paris and Vienna leading the charge with most collections. What is of considerably more interest is the spread of collections, and, as De Callatay points out, the respective strength of the collections within the Southern Netherlands. It was, as he states ‘the best contemporaneous ‘who’s who’ of the antiquarian Republic of the time’.[9] As Constant-Philippe Serrure (1805–72), writing in 1847 rightly wrote, Goltzius’ endeavour was truly gigantic.[10]
Hubert Goltzius, Thesaurus rei antiquariae huberrimus ex antiquis tam numismatum quam marmorum inscriptionibus pari diligentia qua fide conquisitus ac descriptus, & in locos communes distributus per Hubertum Goltzium … (Antwerp, 1618), title page.
The importance of Goltzius’ work was apparent to all and his books sold well. In 1556 his third book appeared: Fasti magnistratum et triumphorum Romanorum ab urbe condita ad Augusti obitum ex antiquis tam numismatum quam marmorum monumentis restitutos S.P.Q.R. … (Bruges, 1566). As the title suggests, his focus had moved to the Roman Republic. It was followed in 1574 by his Caesar Augustus sive historiae imperatorum Caesarumque Romanorum ex antiquis numismatibus restitutae liber Secundus accessit Caesaris Augusti vita et res gestae … (Bruges, 1574), where he again concentrated on coins of the early empire. However, one of Goltzius’ principal contributions to the study of Roman numismatics was his decision to move the focus beyond the coins and medals of the imperial court, and instead to explore the coinage of the Roman colonies. He was not the first antiquarian to take an interest in Rome’s colonies, and Worth owned other important texts on the subject including Reipublicae Romanae in exteris provinciis, bello acquisitis, constitutae commentariorum libri duodecim … opus insigne, correctum … & auctum multis accessionibus, partim ab autore ipso, partim ab alio historico. Accesserunt praeterea huic editioni … Analecta lapidum vetustorum & nonnullarum in Dacia antiquitatum (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1598), which was written by an Austrian humanist, Wolfgang Lazius (1514–65).[11]
By the early seventeenth century it was becoming difficult to buy Goltzius’ publications and, as De Callatay suggests, it was for this reason that Jacques de Bie (1581–approximately 1650), decided to publish a second edition of his texts. The Thesaurus rei antiquariae huberrimus ex antiquis tam numismatum quam marmorum inscriptionibus pari diligentia qua fide conquisitus ac descriptus, & in locos communes distributus per Hubertum Goltzium … (Antwerp, 1618), was just one of them. As Cunnally suggests, this text, first published by the Plantin press at Antwerp in 1579, and dedicated by Goltzius to the Augsburg banker Marcus Fugger (1529–97), was a mixture of material, and it included no illustrations of coinage.[12] However, it still had much to teach a student of numismatics – as Louis Jobert argued in his : ‘… a young Beginner, if he hath not at first a general Knowledge of Medals, Let him therefore begin with the Dialogues of Antonius Augustinus, which are as so many Lessons capable to instruct him. Next he will find great Help from Goltzius his Thesaurus, where Things are reduced to certain Heads, which will teach him the Elements of this Science’.[13]
Hubert Goltzius, Huberti Goltzi Opera omnia, 5 vols (Antwerp, 1645), iv, map of southern Italy.
The 1570s witnessed a sea-change in Goltzius’ numismatic publications: for in 1576 he published a major study on Greek coinage: Graecia sive historia urbium et populorum Graeciae ex antiquis numismatibus restitutae libri quatour … (Bruges, 1576). The ‘four books’ in the title indicated that this was just part of a larger project which was intended to include: I. Sicilia et Magna Graecia; II. Epirus, Peloponesus, Thessalia, Macedonia et Thracia; III. Insulae Graeciae; and IV. Asia, Syria, Aegyptus et Africa. Only the first of these appeared in print but it pointed, yet again, to the innovative nature of Goltzius’ work for he was among the first to extend the scope of his research to include Magna Graecia – Greek Sicily and southern Italy. Indeed, as Napolitano states, Goltzius introduced the term ‘Magna Graecia’ to early modern scholarship in his 1576 book Sicilia et Magna Graecia which formed part of the fourth volume of Worth’s 1645 edition of Goltzius’ works.[14] Napolitano suggests that the inspiration for the work came from Goltzius’ friend and patron, the humanist Marc Laurin (1525–81), Lord of Watervliet, who was based in Bruges.[15] Clearly Goltzius, writing to Laurin, was aware of the innovative nature of the work:
I am reaping the extraordinary rewards of my work and efforts, at this time, as if after a long series of centuries, I have retrieved the memory, the feats, the place, and the description of Sicily and Magna Graecia from oblivion and silence, from the secret abodes of ancient times, and from the accounts of coins and epigraphs; and I have restored their ancient honour thanks to which they flourished.[16]
It certainly was a new departure – moving from a biographical to a geographical approach.[17] Goltzius brought out this text on Sicily and Magna Graecia but did not live to complete his original plan which was to encompass Greek coinage in the Aegean and Easter Greek world.[18] This lacuna should not undermine Goltzius’ achievement: as Adolf Otto rightly said of the work ‘Goltz in his Graecia has done much in […] respect [of the study of Greek coins] and afforded a basis to others’.[19]
Hubert Goltzius, Huberti Goltzi Opera omnia, 5 vols (Antwerp, 1645), iv, Tabula prima: Syracuse.
In the above image, we see the famous decadrachms of Syracuse and in the middle coin on the top row we can see the engraver’s name ‘Kimon’ inscribed on the dolphin.[20] Goltzius began his exploration of Sicily with coins from Syracuse and, as Napolitano points out, the structure of the text matched the order of the plates.[21] Antiquarian remains from Sicily loomed large in the text, and there may have been political reasons for the emphasis on Sicily, given that Goltzius had dedicated the work to Philip II (1527–98), King of Spain.[22] Certainly he made much of Spanish links with the ‘Sicani’ of Sicily. As Napolitano makes clear, the work on Sicily and Magna Graecia marked a new development in Goltzius’ numismatic methodology. Gone were the large medallions of famous Roman emperors of his earliest work: instead there was what one might call a new realism for in his treatment of the coinage of Sicily and Magna Graecia Goltzius was rigorously precise, including both obverse and reverse, and commenting on their size, even though in their depiction they were all represented as being of a similar size.[23] As Kagan argues, the Sicilia et Magna Graecia (Bruges, 1576), was undoubtedly ‘the most significant publication on Greek coins in the sixteenth century’.[24]
Hubert Goltzius, Huberti Goltzi Opera omnia, 5 vols (Antwerp, 1644–5), v, Icones, p. 401: portrait of Ferdinand III (1608–57), Holy Roman Emperor.
Worth’s five-volume set of Goltzius’ collected works contained most of these works. As Cunnally notes, the first four volumes simply reprinted Jacobus de Bie’s Antwerp imprints of 1617–20 (i.e. the Fasti, the Thesaurus, the texts on the first three Caesars, the Graecia universa and the Sicilia et Magna Graecia).[25] The texts on the early Caesars included commentary by the physician and numismatist Ludovicus Nonnius (approximately 1555–1645?). As the above image demonstrates, the fifth volume continued Goltzius sequence up to the present time, including an image of the then Holy Roman Emperor and renaming Goltzius’ first book with the title Icones imperatorum Romanorum.
Text: Dr Elizabethanne Boran, Librarian of the Edward Worth Library, Dublin.
Sources
Acciarino, Damiano, ‘Ancient Roman Colonial Coins in Renaissance Europe’, American Journal of Numismatics, 28 (2016), 231–57.
Callatay, François de, ‘Deux manières de concevoir l’importance des monnaies antiques dans la formation des cabinets humanistes : Hubert Goltzius (1526-1583) et Pierre-Paul Rubens (1577-1640)’, La Vie des Musées, 20 (2006), 30-37.
Callatay, François de, ‘Glory and misery of Belgian numismatics from the 16th to the 18th C. as seen through three milestones (Goltz 1563, Serrure 1847 and the Dekesels) and private correspondences’, in Moens, Jan (ed.), 175 Years of Royal Numismatic Society of Belgium: Proceedings of the Colloquium Belgium Numismatics in Perspective, Brussels, 21 May 2016 (Brussels, 2017), pp 37–129.
Cunnally, John, Images of the Illustrious: The Numismatic Presence in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1999).
Dekesel, Christian E., Bibliotheca Nummaria : bibliography of 16th century numismatic books ; illustrated and annotated catalogue (London, 1997).
Jobert, Louis, The knowledge of medals, or, Instructions for those who apply themselves to the study of medals both ancient and modern from the French (London, 1697).
Kagan, Jonathan, ‘Notes on the Study of Greek Coins in the Renaissance’, in Peter, Ulrike, and Bernhard Weisser (eds), Translatio Nummorum: Römische kaiser in der Renaissance; Akten des internationalen Symposiums, Berlin 16. –18. November 2011 (Mainz, 2013), pp 57–70.
Napolitano, Maria Luisa, ‘Ancient coins and the use of Greek history in Sicilia et Magna Graecia by Hubertus Goltzius (1526–1583)’, in Constantinidou, Natasha, and Hans Lamers (eds), Receptions of Hellenism in Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2019), pp 347–75.
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[1] Quoted in Cunnally, John, Images of the Illustrious: The Numismatic Presence in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1999), p. 92.
[2] Ibid., p. 29.
[3] In the 1645 edition the title is Icones imperatorum Romanorum.
[4] Callatay, François de, ‘Deux manières de concevoir l’importance des monnaies antiques dans la formation des cabinets humanistes : Hubert Goltzius (1526-1583) et Pierre-Paul Rubens (1577-1640)’, La Vie des Musées, 20 (2006), 31.
[5] Ibid., 31.
[6] Callatay, François de, ‘Glory and misery of Belgian numismatics from the 16th to the 18th C. as seen through three milestones (Goltz 1563, Serrure 1847 and the Dekesels) and private correspondences’, in Moens, Jan (ed.), 175 Years of Royal Numismatic Society of Belgium: Proceedings of the Colloquium Belgium Numismatics in Perspective, Brussels, 21 May 2016 (Brussels, 2017), p. 38.
[7] Dekesel, Christian E., Bibliotheca Nummaria : bibliography of 16th century numismatic books ; illustrated and annotated catalogue (London, 1997).
[8] Callatay, ‘Glory and misery of Belgian numismatics from the 16th to the 18th’ C., p. 57. De Callatay notes that Van Goorle’s collection was subsequently sold to Henry Frederick (1594–1612), Prince of Wales.
[9] Ibid., p. 38.
[10] Ibid., p. 41.
[11] The first edition of this work appeared in 1551.
[12] Cunnally, Images of the Illustrious, p. 194.
[13] Jobert, Louis, The knowledge of medals, or, Instructions for those who apply themselves to the study of medals both ancient and modern from the French (London, 1697), pp 210–11.
[14] Napolitano, Maria Luisa, ‘Ancient coins and the use of Greek history in Sicilia et Magna Graecia by Hubertus Goltzius (1526–1583)’, in Constantinidou, Natasha, and Hans Lamers (eds), Receptions of Hellenism in Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2019), p. 347.
[15] Ibid., p. 350.
[16] Quoted in Napolitano, ‘Ancient coins and the use of Greek history in Sicilia et Magna Graecia by Hubertus Goltzius (1526–1583)’, p. 352.
[17] Ibid., p. 350.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Quotes in Kagan, Jonathan, ‘Notes on the Study of Greek Coins in the Renaissance’, in Peter, Ulrike, and Bernhard Weisser (eds), Translatio Nummorum: Römische kaiser in der Renaissance; Akten des internationalen Symposiums, Berlin 16.–18. November 2011 (Mainz, 2013), p. 63.
[20] Ibid., p. 61.
[21] Napolitano, ‘Ancient coins and the use of Greek history in Sicilia et Magna Graecia by Hubertus Goltzius (1526–1583)’, p. 353.
[22] Ibid., p. 357.
[23] Ibid., p. 364. As Kagan notes, some flights of fancy did occur – but in the main it seems clear that Goltzius was describing actual coins: Kagan, ‘Notes on the Study of Greek Coins in the Renaissance’, p. 62.
[24] Kagan, ‘Notes on the Study of Greek Coins in the Renaissance’, p. 60.
[25] Cunnally, Images of the Illustrious, p. 195.