Italia, Messina. Federico II (1198-1250). Augustale

Messina, Federico II (1197-1250) , Augustale, VERY RARE Coined by the mints of Messina and Brindisi starting from 1231, the coin represents an anomaly compared to the others of the same period due to the particular illustrative and processing technique, which was inspired by the Roman imperial golds. It was introduced by the Holy Roman Emperor to put an end to the monetary disorder caused by the simultaneous circulation in the Kingdom of Sicily of the numerous types of coins deriving from previous dominations. The obverse features the bust of the emperor with a laurel wreath and the inscription · CESAR AVG · · IMP ROM ·. The reverse features a Roman eagle with spread wings and the inscription FRIDERICVS. VERY RARE . Spahr 103; MEC 14, 517 (5, 20 g) Traces of whipping, especially the reverse at 6 h The engraver was Balduino Pagano da Messina, who was stylistically inspired by the imperial golds On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante's death (1265-1321) , Catawiki is dedicating an auction to the Supreme Poet focused on the coins of his time and on those related to the characters of his Divine Comedy. # dante700memorial DANTE AND FEDERICO II The presence of Frederick II in hell is signaled to D. by Farinata degli Uberti, encountered in the sixth circle, a plain scattered with sepulchral arks uncovered waiting for the day of judgment and suffocated by flames that burn around it. There, Virgil explains, the initiators of the heretical movements with their followers (Inf. IX, 124-131) : probably the punishment of the heretics is traced by D. on that of the stake envisaged by Frederick II in two of his constitutions. The department of the sepulcher to which D. is led is reserved for Epicurus and "all his followers / who make the soul with the dead body" (Inf. X, 13-15) . Farinata overlooks one of these arches, of which D. had expressed his desire to get acquainted shortly before (vv. 6-9 and 16-18; cf. VI, 79-87) . When D. asks Farinata to tell him "who was with him", he replies: "in here is the second Frederick / and the Cardinal [Ottaviano degli Ubaldini] ; and I keep silent about the others" (vv. 116-120) . Farinata's words disturb D. , since they contain an obscure omen on the first phase (up to 1304) of his exile (vv. 79-81) and the news of the presence of Frederick II therefore inevitably takes a back seat. Frederick, therefore, in hell because he was an Epicurean heretic. Of the four buried in the same tomb - Farinata and the two named by him, as well as Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti, who also converses with D. (vv. 57-72) - the first three belong to the pars imperii and the last to the pars ecclesie. If the particular heresy attributed here to Svevo were not sufficient to clear the ground from the thesis of an organic link between Ghibellineism and Patarinism (this is how heresy in general was defined in Florence at the time) , the presence of a Guelph among the four is enough to contradict it. heretics called by name. Farinata is also one of the five Florentines, "who are out so worthy" and "a ben far puoser li ingegni", of which D. asks Ciacco where they are (Inf. VI, 79-87) . "Worthy", as they had distinguished themselves in terms of "well far", that is, active life, and such on this level - indeed more than worthy, given that he and his son Manfredi are called heroes illustres - is also Frederick II in De vulgari eloquentia (I, xii, 4) . The two, in fact, "knew how to express all the nobility and uprightness of their spirit, and as long as luck allowed it they behaved like real men, disdaining to live like beasts", with the result that the Sicilian palace had become the point of reference and of collection of Italian men of letters corde nobiles atque gratiarum gifted. From this praise of the Sicilian-Frederick classroom the denunciation, which D. places in the mouth of Pier della Vigna (Inf. XIII, 58-78) , of the "vice" of envy, widespread everywhere but in particular in the courts and , therefore, also in the Sicilian one, which led to suicide him, who had been Federico's closest collaborator. However, he does not speak to denigrate the institution where he had worked with satisfaction, but to remove the suspicion that still lingered that he had betrayed his emperor. Frederick II and his son Frederick of Antioch had a leading role in one event, remembered to D. da Farinata (v.) . To the Ghibelline head of the party, who, first of all, asks him "'Chi fuori li major tui? '" (Inf. X, 42) , not out of curiosity to know his birthplace, but out of the factious eagerness to be informed about the party to which they had belonged, the respondent replies without hesitation that they had been on the Guelph side. Proud adversaries, therefore - Farinata replies -, of himself, of his former and of his side, so much so that he forced them to go into exile twice: in 1248 and in 1260. In 1248 to decide the fate of a battle, fought in Florence between Guelphs and Ghibellines, it was the emperor who sent his son with six hundred German knights to reinforce the latter (Giovanni Villani, Nuova cronica, edited by G. Porta, I, Parma 1990, pp. 317 s. ) . If D. places Frederick II in hell it is also due to an innate reflection of his family memory, even if it is not clear how many of the Alighieri were in exile after 1248 and 1260.