Nicolaas Heinsius - Johannes Smetius - 1648-4-29

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Nicolaas Heinsius, Milan

Nicolaas Heinsius - Johannes Smetius - 1648-4-29
FINA IDUnique ID of the page  16671
InstitutionName of Institution.
InventoryInventory number.
AuthorAuthor of the document. Nicolaas Heinsius
RecipientRecipient of the correspondence. Johannes Smetius
Correspondence dateDate when the correspondence was written: day - month - year . April 29, 1648
PlacePlace of publication of the book, composition of the document or institution. Milan 45° 27' 51.08" N, 9° 11' 22.67" E
Associated personsNames of Persons who are mentioned in the annotation. Domenico Passignano, Simonds D’Ewes
LiteratureReference to literature. Betouw 1783, p. 34-361
KeywordNumismatic Keywords  Cabinet Acquisitions , Coin Price , Connoisseurship
LanguageLanguage of the correspondence Latin
External LinkLink to external information, e.g. Wikpedia 
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Grand documentOriginal passage from the "Grand document".

-Letter of 29 Apr. 1648 (from Milan to Nijmegen): "Sapit profecto D’Ewesius, qui nummos istos aureos argenteosque pretio tam commodo suos velit. Utinam et ego ejus exemplo saperem. Etsi enim fortunae meae satis sint tenues nec cum ejus opulentia comparandae: non dubitavi tamen ad primum nummorum istorum conspectum id pretii offerre, quod ille suo offerri jubet nomine. Si aut ille, aut ego obtinemus, quod volumus, vix floreni nostrates ducenti supra auri argentique pondus persolventur. Aurei sunt CXII qui uncias xxv cum semisse conficiunt. Uncia autem auri valet in Italia florenis quadraginta nostratibus: ut ipsum auri pretium summam florenorum mille excedat. Obtuli autem supra id pretium florenos CL pro antiquitate, ut hic loquuntur, sed frustra. Argenteorum unciae funt XC pro quibus florenos D nostrates persoluturum me affirmavi, si aureos servare sibi vellet nummorum possessor.

D’Ewes is certainly wise to want those gold and silver coins at such a suitable price. I wish I was as knowledgeable as him. For although my means are rather thin and not to be compared with his wealth, nevertheless I did not hesitate at the first sight of those coins to offer the part of the price which he said should be offered in his name. If either he or I get what we want, hardly two hundred of our florins will be paid over the weight of the gold and silver. There are 112 gold coins which make 25 and a half ounces. An ounce of gold in Italy is worth forty of our florins, so that that price of gold will be more than the sum of a thousand florins. But I offered 150 florins above that price ‘for their antiquity’ (as they say here), but in vain. There were 90 ounces of silver for which I agreed that I would pay 500 of our florins, if the owner of the coins wished to keep the gold for himself) (G. C. in de Betouw (ed.), De lucernis veterum reconditis in agro Neomagensium suburbano (Nijmegen, 1783), pp. 34-36)

References

  1. ^ Betouw 1783