From the Treasure Chest to the Pope's Soup. Coins, Mints and the Roman
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
From the treasure chest to the pope’s soup. Coins, mints and the Roman Curia (1150–1305) Lucia Travaini (Roma-Milano) Introduction Ihavebeen invited to the congress on »Die römische Kurie und das Geld« as ‘the scholar of the physical coins’, while most other participants most generally are familiar withthe names of coins recorded in documents, and often these names meant moneys of account. Effectivecoins and written records must be studied together: archaeology can giveusthe coins (hopefully from good documented contexts) and we can arriveatimportantresults by studying the finds. But the written evidence is crucial becauseitcan giveusthe name of coins, or it can tell us somethingabout the mints, the local monetary uses,valuesor circulation and alot more. We must be aware, as Isaid, that written evidence mainly refers to moneys of account, but it may also offer detailsofacorrespondence with effective coins: in this case aproper study is needed in order to understand what the effectivecoins might havebeen in any specific moment. Iwill develop my paper in sections as follows: I. Money of account. II. The importance of coins and of numismatic research. III. Brief outline of monetary development in Europe (1150–1305). IV. Coins used and coins produced in Rome. V. Coins arrivingtothe Roman Curia: taxes, donationsand pilgrims. VI. Ritual uses of coins and apapal soup. I. Money of account The topic of money of account is very complex and much debated by scholars of different fields, especially economic historians and numismatists1).Inorder to understand the na- 1) Luigi Einaudi,Teoria della moneta immaginaria nel tempo da Carlo Magno alla Rivoluzione francese, in: Rivista di storia economica 1(1936), p. 1–35; Carlo M. Cipolla,Leavventure della lira, Bologna 1975. See also Marc Bloch, Esquisse d’une histoire monétaire de l’Europe (Cahier des Annales 9), Paris 1954; 28 LUCIA TRAVAINI ture of moneyofaccount we need to consider metrology and systems of account, and also the origin of money itself. All coins needed to be connectedwithin asystem of values made of abstract units, multiples and fractions. The Carolingian system wasbased on the pound (lira) of 20 solidi, the solidus of 12 denarii and the denarius,which wasthe only effectivecoin struckinsilver. This systemofaccount remained the basis of monetary systems in Europeand Northern Italy for centuries (in Englanduntil 1970).Inthe Nor- man Kingdom of Sicily the monetary system wasbased on the ounce of 30 gold taris and on the tari of 20 grains; gold taris were produced in the Kingdom until 1278, but after this date the tari and the ounce remained in use as money of account2). Several scholars haveconsidered money of accountasan‘invention’ or ‘necessity’ of the middle ages3),but in factany coinage for whatever use needed amoneyofaccount. According to Crosby the morecomplex use of moneys of account is connected with the general development of quantifications in the 13th century whilst in the early middle ages »coins had little abstract value beyond the value of their metal«4).Onthe contrary, Ibe- lievethat in the early middle ages the reduceduse of effective coins did not reduce the Frederic C. Lane/ReinholdC.Mueller, Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice, vol. 1, Coins and moneys of account, Baltimore/London 1985; Geoffrey Ingham,The Nature of Money, Cambridge/Malden MA 2004. For coins in written sources see Philip Grierson,Les monnaies (Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental 21), Turnhout 1977. For exchange rates in medieval Europe see Peter Spufford,AHandbook of Medieval Exchange(Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 13), London 1986. The author offers here alarge section on moneys of account between the late 12th to the 15th centuries. For Italian monetaryareas see Andrea Saccocci,Moneta locale emoneta internazionale nelle fonti scritte medioevali. Problemidiintepretazione, in: Forme di contatto tra moneta locale emoneta straniera nel mondo antico, ed. Giovanni Gorini,Atti del convegno internazionale, Aosta 13–14 ottobre 1995, Fondazione »Andrea Pautasso« per gli studi di numismatica, Padova1998, p. 137–148, and Andrea Saccocci,Billon and bullion. Local and foreign coins in Northern Italy (11th-15th centuries), in: Moneta locale, moneta straniera: Italia ed Europa XI-XV secolo, The Second Cambridge Numismatic Symposium:Local Coins, Foreign coins: Italy and Europe 11th-15th centuries, ed. by Lucia Travaini (Collana di numismatica escienze affini 2), Milan 1999, p. 41–65. 2) On the monetarysystem of the Kingdom of Sicily see Lucia Travaini,Lamonetazione nell’Italia normanna (Nuovi Studi Storici 28), Roma 1995, p. 58–60, 73, 78; Lucia Travaini,Lamonetazione nell’I- talia normanna.Seconda edizione con aggiornamento eristampaanastatica,Zürich/London 2016; Philip Grierson/Lucia Travaini,Medieval European Coinage. With aCatalogue of the Coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Vol. 14, Italy (III) (South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia), Cambridge 1998, p. 468 (oncia), 473 (tari). The theoretical weight of the Sicilian taris wasoriginally 1.06 grams later reduced to 0.89 grams; however, the effective taris were struck at irregular weights, especially since the reign of William II, so that they had to be weighed in transactions, see Travaini,Lamonetazione, pp. 133–140; Lucia Travaini,Mo- nete, mercanti ematematica. Le monete nei trattati di aritmetica enei libri di mercatura, Roma 2003, p. 54–56. 3) Einaudi,Teoria della moneta (note 1), p. 17;Ingham,The Nature of Money (note 1), p. 109–110. 4) Alfred W. Crosby,The Measure of Reality. Quantification and Western Society, 1250–1600, Cam- bridge 1997, p. 72. FROMTHE TREASURE CHESTTOTHE POPE’S SOUP 29 need of an abstractsystem of values which money of account provided.Itistrue however that from the 13th century the increase in production and use of moneyinEurope de- termined the creation of many relatedmoneys of account. Before coins were ‘invented’, money wasoriginallyan‘object’ or ‘good’ of standard weight or measure, basis for monetary systems,such as the spit (= obelos)inthe in the Greek world. Examples of units referring to balances are the Greek stater and litra and the Latin statera and libra. Before metallic coins,money of account wasthe basis of values of any given society. The early evidence of writing (circa3200 BC) is largely related to administrativeaccounts expressed in alimited number of goods, mainly silver or cereals of agiven measure, as money. Philip Grierson studied the origin of money carefully and found it strictly linked to religious aspects (giftexchange and sacrifice) and to the role of power (sovereignty –authority – law): from here he considered that the origin of money as systemofvalues expressed in standard objects or goods had its root in the ‘price of blood’, meaningthe value of man (for aransom or compensation in afeud)and of woman (for marriage) developing much later in the invention of metallic coins5).Money as social relation of credit and debit is probably the best definition6). In the later middle ages, the presence of many effectivecoins still had to be based on money of account. For example, 100 gold florins could be worth 99 and 7/8 florins of account if the effectivecoins were worn and had therefore areduced weight (for this reason sealed bags of florins came in use, to avoid the need of weighing for each trans- action of alarge scale)7).Moreover, it is not realistic to imagine that agood coin could maintain itsoriginal value resisting the pressure of the metal market or that of other coins. It is true that moneys of account were complicated but they were needed. Some system of account wasoccasionally used to facilitate accounting in case of large sums8). Money of account has been often defined as »moneta immaginaria«, at leastfrom the first half of the 15th century in the ‘pratica di mercatura’ by pseudo-Chiarini: …ed evvi anche aVignone monete immaginate enon si vedeno…;here he described in detail the monetary system in Avignon: »A Vignone si fanno pagamenti alire, soldi, denariemitte di grossi eafiorini pitetti che 24 fannoungrosso e12grossi fannounsoldo e20soldi 5) Philip Grierson,The Origins of Money, in: Id., Scritti storici enumismatici (Centro italiano di studi sull’Altomedioevo. Collectanea 15), Spoleto 2001, p. 1–35, translatedinItalian as Le origini della moneta, in: Rivista Italiana di Numismatica 102 (2001), p. 13–48. 6) Geoffrey Ingham,Fundamentals of atheory of money: untangling Fine, Lapavitsas and Zelizer, in: Economyand Society 30/3 (2001), p. 304–323, quoting Grierson. 7) On sealed bags of gold coins see Richard A. Goldthwaite,Ilsistema monetario fino al 1600: pratica, politica, problematica, in: Id. /Giulio Mandich,Studi sulla moneta fiorentina (sec. XIII-XVI) (Bi- blioteca storica toscana I/30), Firenze 1994, p. 9–106; Lucia Travaini, Monete estoria nell’Italiamedievale, Roma 2007, p. 99–100. 8) Lucia Travaini,Unsistema di conto poco conosciuto:la’mano da quattro’,in: Revue Numismatique 153 (1998), p. 327–334. 30 LUCIA TRAVAINI fanno una lira di grossi, e‘lfiorinopitetto vale 12 grossi di mitte 24 il grosso cioè soldi2, che tanto èadire una mitta quanto uno denaropiccolo; ed evvi anche aVignone monete immaginate enon si vedeno; chiamansi fiorinidicamera che s’intende valere l’uno soldi 1 9) 29 ogrossi 14 2« .From this example we can better reflect on the relationship between monetary systems and moneys of account. Amonetary system consists of an articulated number of denominations which are multiples or fractions of agiven unit: in this system some denominations are also effectivecoins and someothers are only moneys of account. The point here is to understand that even when effectivecoins were struckunder agiven name, the same name still had arole as moneyofaccount thus making it possible to compensate any physical changeofthe effective coin. II. Theimportance of coins and of numismatic research Coins are important documents: they were mostly mass produced, durable, and were used in many ways. In acongress dedicated to the Roman Curia and money we may ask just to start what were the coins of the popes from 1150 to 1300.