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BOOK REVIEW: PRAISE OF NUMISMATICSA 2015 book in Italian by author Damiano Cappellari was reviewed on May 25, 2017 by Björn Schöpe of CoinsWeekly. Here's some information from the web, translated from the
Italian by Google. -Editor
The goal of this work is the praise of numismatics, but perhaps more than nummophilia, which is the vibrant vibration of joy that shines in the eyes and waves in the chest of the nummophiles (that is, antique coin amateurs). Damiano Cappellari, in an original way, tells centuries of history in which the passion for coins accounted for more money For more information, or to order, see:
With permission, here's an excerpt from Björn's review. -Editor
Do you know Guillaume Apollinaire’s ‘The Flâneur of Paris’? At the beginning of the 20th century, artists still took the time to wander through their urban environment without any particular aim, to be inspired by their surroundings, to gather impressions. And sometimes they immortalized this strolling in a literal form, as Apollinaire did. I felt reminded of this when I read the curious book ‘Elogio della numismatica’ by Damiano Cappellari. Right at the start, I noticed two things. Firstly, the table of contents doesn’t reveal any content structure. And secondly, the book is written in an Italian language that is often poetic, sometimes self-mocking, and always sounds like a slightly out of date scholarly high-level language, recalling the great masters of the past. In his second book, the young Italian explains why he wants to distinguish between ‘numismatics’ and ‘nummophilia’: While numismatics can also be pursued as pure science without any emotions, with nummophilia he rather emphasizes the enthusiasm for coins that opens up whole new worlds for the relevant followers. By that the author of course polemizes. Yet you don’t hold this against him for there is one element that runs through his book like a recurring theme, so undividedly excited and exciting: the love for coins. The quotations make it clear – this is not a numismatic book, which can be classified according to any common pattern. It thrives on its enchanting language and can be described more appropriately on the basis of what it does not do: This Elogium is not an introduction to numismatics, no analysis of a historical subject-matter, not a manual or a catalog. It’s nothing less than a declaration of love. And similarly to the love between people, within the front cover and the back, this booklet evidences that the love for coins also has no meaning (and doesn’t have to have), it simply is. Numismatic bibliophiles and researchers know the feeling well - there is a wonderment to our passion, the neverending quest to learn more and more about the nature and history of the
objects of our fascination. -Editor
To read the complete CoinsWeekly article, see:
For a free subscription to CoinsWeekly, see: http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/Subscribe-to-CoinsWeekly-Newsletter/37 Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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