the International Congress on Medieval Studies is happening next week, and there are a couple of sessions devoted to Numismatics that I plan to attend (193, Money and Its Use: Papers in Memory of Peter Spufford ; 359, The Early Medieval Economy ; 461, Topics in Byzantine Numismatics). Will anyone else be in attendance by chance?
I will not be attending but it sounds like great fun! Would you mind sharing the handout from the Early Medieval Economy, if one is available? I know very little about this topic and would love to know more
I suspect I cannot publicly share handouts that are someone’s unpublished research, but I will ask the speakers if I can provide a private copy (if I get the opportunity to speak with them).
@FitzNigel, my apologies. I was not familiar with this conference, and in my enthusiasm, asked for a copy of the handout before I read the conference policies. I now realize each presentation must contain unpublished research, so I doubt a handout would be given to the attendees, and would not ask you to request one from the speaker. I do appreciate you bringing this conference to my attention. Since it is held in Kalamazoo every year, I hope to attend one day.
It’s usually a lot of fun - I haven’t been here in 6 years though, so I’m adjusting to some changes (and trying to deal with how many sessions are about “medievalism” rather than the actual Middle Ages). And no need to apologize! If you see the conference topics and one of those talks sounds interesting to you, let me know and I can always ask if they are willing to share info. We’re all in the process of increasing our knowledge of the past after all
@FitzNigel , it was a true pleasure to meet you at Kalamazoo. And I fully agree that there was an overwhelming number of sessions on medievalism and contemporary politics this year. I have very mixed feelings about this development. Max Weber once argued that the question of how the world should be is of no relevance for truthfully answering the question of how the world is or has been in the past – this position is increasingly abandoned in today's academia, I'm afraid... On a more positive note, although I didn't come there primarily for coins, I was able to make it to two very good numismatic sessions this year. Alan Stahl presented some quite fascinating insights into coin circulation in the Justinianic era (somewhat surprisingly, Justinian's conquests apparently didn't have much of an impact on coin circulation), and David Yoon presented a convincing paper on some Merovingian-type coins that he argued to be Visigothic imitations. Allen Berman had a booth at the book exhibition. I dropped by and couldn't resist picking up this nice little bracteate. Yes, it is small and flimsy – but it is the only high medieval coin prominently featuring a dragon that I know of. If that's not cool, I don't know what is... Freiburg im Breisgau, civic issue, bracteate penny ("vierzipfliger Pfennig"), ca. 1250 AD. Obv: dragon ("Lindwurm") r. Rev: negative design. 18mm, 0.37g. Ref: Berger 2432–3; Slg. Wüthrich 54; Wielandt, Breisgau 44. Ex Allen Berman.
It as a pleasure meeting you as well @Orielensis! I’m sad I missed Stahl’s talk (I enjoyed his book on Venetian Coins, and was thus curious what he had to say on Justinian). Lee Mordechai had an interesting paper looking at mint output in conjunction with natural disasters utilizing the FLAME database (http://coinage.princeton.edu/). I also dropped in on a session I hadn’t intended to go to, and Jeremy Piercy had a fascinating talk on the moneyers in the late anglo-Saxon period (I don’t want to give away too much, as he has a forthcoming book with some of his findings - suffice to say I am looking forward to reading it). I also grabbed a coin from Allen Berman - one which he advertised as Edward II of England, but I suspect it may actually be Edward I. It is a nice coin regardless. I haven’t had a chance to photograph it yet (heck, I still have three Norman coins I bought in January which are awaiting photos and attributing...). I admitted left with more books than coins... Love the bracteate! I think German coins have some of the greatest variety of design, and seem like the closest imitation of manuscript art in metal.
