The project »Fontes Inediti Numismaticae Antiquae« (FINA) is an international enterprise that aims at collecting, studying, and publishing manuscript evidence (before ca. 1800) related to ancient coins and ancient numismatics.

 

The antiquarian approach is currently very much en vogue in numismatics. However, the development of the discipline from the 16th to the 18th century can be evaluated adequately only by studying not just the printed works, but also the manuscript sources: mainly scholarly correspondence, but also shorter treatises or manuscripts of books that were never published. This material – frequently comprising coin drawings – is scattered all over the world in archives and public as well as private libraries and is largely unknown today; hence, it is frequently overlooked by scholars.

The international project »Fontes Inediti Numismaticae Antiquae« has been created in order to remedy this. It is being coordinated by the Académie royale de Belgique (Brussels; François de Callataÿ) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna; Bernhard Woytek) and is under the patronage of the Union Académique Internationale (UAI, project no. 83, established in 2013). This project is dedicated to the publication (also online) of manuscript material related to ancient numismatics, dating from ca. 1500 to ca. 1800. The chronological focus is on pre-19th century material because Joseph Eckhel, the ›Father of Ancient Numismatics‹, died in Vienna in 1798: his work marks a watershed in the study of ancient coinage.

FINA Wiki

In addition to specific publication projects (dedicated, e.g., to the correspondence of important scholars), information gathered during the project is collected and stored on a searchable Wiki platform, fully accessible on the web. FINA Wiki was initiated by Bernhard Woytek and is hosted by the the Austrian Academy of Sciences. It was generously sponsored by the Union Académique Internationale (UAI) and implemented by KDZ - Centre for Public Administration Research. For the moment, it is based mainly on data gathered by François de Callataÿ (Académie royale de Belgique), but it is constantly being expanded.

The scientific committee of FINA currently comprises the following scholars:
  • Michael Alram (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)
  • John Cunnally (Iowa State University, Ames)
  • François de Callataÿ (Bibliothèque royale de Belgique and Académie royale de Belgique, Brussels)
  • Ursula Kampmann (Lörrach)
  • Federica Missere Fontana (Centro di Studi Muratoriani, Modena)
  • Bernhard Woytek (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)

Projektleitung

Cooperations

Duration

seit 2013

Funding

  • FWF P25282 (2013–2015)
  • FWF P29068 (2017–2020)
  • FWF P34086 (Februar 2021– Jänner 2024)