Parva Burghesia: Two unpublished numismatic manuscripts by Bartolomeo Borghesi

The illustrious numismatist of Savignano, Bartolomeo Borghesi (1781–1860), was certainly one of the greatest collectors and scholars of Roman antiquities in Italy in the 19th century. Since 1860, the year of his death in the ‘hermitage’ of San Marino, a special French commission has meticulously devoted itself to collecting all his writings, which were then published or reprinted in various volumes in Paris, at the expense of Emperor Napoleon III (1852–1870). However, many texts escaped the search of the editors of Borghesi’s Oeuvres complètes: Minor writings, notes and correspondence remained scattered in numerous libraries and archives of Emilia-Romagna. Moreover, the French commission failed to complete its work, and thousands of papers were left unpublished in the library of the Institute of France in Paris or in the personal archives of the commission’s corresponding members, among whom were the historians Celestino Cavedoni (1795–1865), Francesco Rocchi (1805–1875) and even Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903). The present contribution reports on two manuscripts by Bartolomeo Borghesi of a numismatic nature: Both texts were written before the drafting of the famous "Osservazioni numismatiche" (1821–1840) and therefore belong to his early career.