The paper opens with a brief overview of the legal measures against money counterfeiters imposed in the Italian area from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. It therefore presents the different types of monetary falsification known through late medieval, documentary and literary written sources, to draw a preliminary picture of the phenomenon in Tuscany and in the neighboring areas, to be compared and completed with the material data presented in the second part of the essay. Archaeological sources and sites with evidence relating to the production of counterfeit coins currently known in Tuscany and surrounding areas are then considered. The identified contexts are located in rural areas and in places difficult to access, sometimes at the borders of a country, inside castles or caves and with abundant production waste; these are also the main characteristics of the other Italian and European illegal mints that are known for the same period of time (12th-early 16th century AD). The smaller denominations were more often counterfeited, showing a trend difference compared to what is reported by the written sources. The document closes with some methodological observations on the elements of tracking these activities and on their study procedures.
Il contributo si apre con un sintetico excursus sui mutamenti giuridici avvenuti dall’Antichità al Medioevo italiano nei confronti dei falsari di moneta. Quindi presenta i diversi tipi di falsificazione noti attraverso le fonti scritte bassomedievali, documentarie e letterarie, per tracciare un primo panorama del fenomeno in Toscana e nelle zone più prossime sulla scorta di queste testimonianze, da porre a confronto con i dati materiali presentati nella seconda parte del saggio. Vengono quindi prese in considerazione le fonti archeologiche e i siti con evidenze legate alla produzione di moneta falsa noti in Toscana e nelle aree limitrofe. I contesti di certa identificazione si trovano in area rurale e in luoghi di difficile accesso, talvolta collocati ai confini di uno stato, in castelli o in grotte e ricchi di tracce del processo produttivo, come avviene anche per altre zecche clandestine italiane ed europee dello stesso arco cronologico (XII-inizi XVI secolo), alle quali si accenna. Più spesso vi si falsificavano monete di piccolo taglio, a differenza di quanto attestato dalle fonti scritte. Il contributo si conclude con alcune riflessioni metodologiche sulla valutazione degli elementi traccianti queste attività e sulle loro procedure di studio.
Zecche clandestine e falsari nel Medioevo: dati storici e archeologici sulla Toscana e aree limitrofe / M. Baldassarri, I. Carli (BIBLIOTECA DI ARCHEOLOGIA MEDIEVALE). - In: Massa di Maremma e la Toscana nel basso Medioevo : zecche, monete ed economia / [a cura di] M. Baldassarri. - Firenze : All'Insegna del Giglio, 2019. - ISBN 978-88-7814-894-9. - pp. 65-76 (( convegno Per una storia economica e sociale della Toscana bassomedievale: le monete e le zecche tenutosi a Massa Marittima nel 2017.
Zecche clandestine e falsari nel Medioevo: dati storici e archeologici sulla Toscana e aree limitrofe
M. Baldassarri;
2019
Abstract
The paper opens with a brief overview of the legal measures against money counterfeiters imposed in the Italian area from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. It therefore presents the different types of monetary falsification known through late medieval, documentary and literary written sources, to draw a preliminary picture of the phenomenon in Tuscany and in the neighboring areas, to be compared and completed with the material data presented in the second part of the essay. Archaeological sources and sites with evidence relating to the production of counterfeit coins currently known in Tuscany and surrounding areas are then considered. The identified contexts are located in rural areas and in places difficult to access, sometimes at the borders of a country, inside castles or caves and with abundant production waste; these are also the main characteristics of the other Italian and European illegal mints that are known for the same period of time (12th-early 16th century AD). The smaller denominations were more often counterfeited, showing a trend difference compared to what is reported by the written sources. The document closes with some methodological observations on the elements of tracking these activities and on their study procedures.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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