Page 13 - The De Wit Collection of Medieval Coins, 1000 Years of European Coinage, Part III

INTRODUCTION

At the Synod of Clermont from 18 to 28 November 1095 Pope Urban II called for an armed
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a speech that would thunder on well into the thirteenth century,
prompting thousands of crusaders to take up the cross. The only exception were the knights of the
Iberian peninsula, who had their hands full (re)conquering the territory of present-day Spain on the
Muslims during the seven-and-a-half-century-long Reconquista. Many a crusade army counted
famous personalities among its midst, Staufer emperor Frederick I for one or English king Richard
the Lionhearted for another. The consequences of the crusades would be immense for medieval
Europe: the crusades eventually wore down the Byzantine Empire, they caused the Italian city
states of Genoa and Venice to grow fabulously wealthy and become sea powers of significance in
the Mediterranean, they saw the founding of the short-lived crusader states in Palestine and in the
Christian knights’ orders that they sparked a substantially better organised and disciplined warrior
elite established itself. Yet, the most important aftereffect of these armed pilgrimages without any
doubt was the heightened cultural exchange between the Orient and the Occident.

Despite the enduring atrocities of these wars, mutual understanding also grew, leading the main
Frankish chronicler of the First Crusade to comment: “For we, who were occidentals, have now
become orientals. [...] Words of different languages have now become common property to the
extent of no nationality being foreign anymore, mutual trust uniting those who do not know each
other’s origins” (Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana, book III, chapter XXXVII). Even
if Fulcher’s judgment was too optimistic, as the future was to show, it aptly reflects the
rapprochement of Christendom and Islam at the turn of the 11th century.

As did the previous parts, the third part of the De Wit collection connects the westernmost part of
medieval Europe to its east, following almost the same route English crusaders took to the Holy
Land. Our numismatic journey starts in 8th century England at the coinage of its kings and, via the
Iberian peninsula, deeply marred by the Reconquista, we are lead to the cities and states of Italy
that had grown fabulously wealthy through trade. Italy, incidentally, is also the origin of the very
first coin Professor De Wit purchased: a Salut d’Or of Charles of Anjou (1266-1278) from Naples,
which he bought in Amsterdam in 1965 – the beginning of the present collection and at the same
time part of the last catalogue. From here, the trail continues, across the Balkan, along the Black
Sea down to the Aegean and then out to Rhodes and Cyprus. The coinage of the ephemeral
crusader states and the Turkmen mark our destination. In what one might call an aside to the
collection, the 90 reckoning counters and the weights offer a deeper insight into medieval trading.
At the end of this journey coinages and issues of both Christian and Islamic rulers and dynasties
will have been considered along with the ways in which they influenced each other.

We are once more proud to present the collector’s extensive historical commentaries on the
individual items, the period of their minting and the persons behind the fabrics. All pieces are
again shown enlarged by a factor 1.5, if not marked otherwise. At the end of the catalogue there is
an comprehensive general index with key words from all three parts of the collection. It also
contains a register of errata of the previous parts, I and II.

We hope you enjoy reading the third part and its historical commentaries and wish you the best of
luck with bidding!

Fritz Rudolf Künker Arne Kirsch Dr. Sebastian Steinbach

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Auf Wunsch von Herrn Professor de Wit haben wir uns entschlossen, den Katalog seiner
Sammlung in englischer Sprache zu verfassen. Wir verbinden damit die Hoffnung, ein
internationales Publikum interessierter Sammler mittelalterlicher Münzen und Erforscher der
Numismatik des Mittelalters ansprechen zu können. Für die damit verbundenen Schwierigkeiten
für unsere deutschsprachigen Kunden bitten wir erneut um Verständnis. Unser Team steht Ihnen
selbstverständlich mit Rat und Hilfe bei Unklarheiten oder Verständnisproblemen zur Verfügung.

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