VIGNOLI GIOVANNI. Antiquiores pontificum romanorum denarii nunc primum in lucem editi notisque illustrati. Romae, Apud Rocchum Bernabejum, 1709 cm. 27,5, pp. (12), 65 (3). Large frieze on the frontispiece, graceful drop caps, small heads and finals all in woodcut; 24 copper engravings depicting 35 papal coins, and some wood engravings. Solid and elegant nineteenth-century half leather binding with titles and gold threads on the back. Stamp of possession in red: Diamilla library. Large paper copy. Excellent state of conservation. Our copy has the precious peculiarity of having belonged to the author and of bringing his handwritten notes. The white paper preceding the title page bears the large inscription: Veteris Romanarum Moneta specimen. Then there are other notes that Vignoli affixed by his hand probably in anticipation of an enlarged edition. One of these notes bears his monogram at the bottom: G.V. A handwritten folder tells us the story of the sale of the specimen at the auction in which Diamilla's volumes were dispersed (in 1842) and where the old owner was happy to be able to purchase this rarity ... which Diamilla certainly had not appreciated! The author's name appears on c. A2R. See Graesse (VII, 315) who cites only the reprint edited by Fioravanti in 1734. Writes Promis, in his " Monete dei romani pontefici avanti il mille" (Turin 1858): As far as the coins beaten by the popes before the second mid-twelfth century, as early as the end of the seventeenth century some were published by the French Le Blanc (Traite 'historique des monnoyes de France ... Amsterdam 1692) in 1709 a good following by Vignoli was published, and that twenty-five years after Fioravanti with many additions reprinted (Benedetto Fioravante: Antiqui romanorum pontificum denarii a Benedicto IX ad Paulum III, 2 vol., Rome, 1738). Muratori in his " Dissertazione sulle zecche d'Italia" copied this work, increasing it. It would therefore seem that Bonanni (1696), followed by Vignoli (1709), then by Scilla (1715), Fioravanti (1734) and finally by Venuti (1744) were the first books "entirely" dedicated to pontifical numismatics. Vignoli (Pitigliano, 1663?-Rome, 1733) was an archaeologist, numismatist and scholar of antiquity. Ecclesiastic, secretary of Filippo Colonna, succeeded Zaccagni as librarian of the Vatican and had correspondences with some of the most skilled scholars of his time. EXTREMELY RARE.