At the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo from 28 October the new exhibition of the collection of coins, trading cards and tokens opens to the public.
Admission and free guided tours on 4 and 5 November.
5000 specimens of ancient coins from the collection of the Museo nazionale di San Matteo in Pisa, from the medieval mints of Pisa, Lucca, Siena and Florence, together with splendid examples from the Medici and Lorraine periods, now tell the story of Pisa, its territory and region, from antiquity to the 19th century, in a new exhibition.
The coins are joined by a conspicuous number of medieval and modern merchant cards and tokens, as well as seals and medals, enriched by a number of important finds from the city and the territory, including the treasure of medieval gold coins discovered in the 1930s in the Logge di Banchi in Pisa.
This is the extraordinary result of the 'Microcosms of History' project presented and inaugurated today, prepared and co-funded by the Regional Museums of Tuscany Directorate of the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Società Storica Pisana, the coordinating and proposing entity, together with ISTI and ICCOM of the CNR in Pisa and the LabCD of the University of Pisa, and realised thanks to funding from the Municipality of Pisa and the Pisa Foundation.
As of today, in addition to the specimens on display in the new showcases, the public will also be able to admire the details of more than a thousand pieces thanks to high-definition digitised photographs that can be consulted via the special touch-screen alongside the new exhibition showcases or on personal devices and remotely on the web platforms of the MiC, the CNR, the new website of the Società Storica Pisana and on Wikipedia in the sections on the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo created by SSP and LabCD of the University of Pisa.
The project, which concludes with this precious new exhibition, included metallographic analyses of selected pieces using non-destructive methods, carried out by Vincenzo Palleschi, CNR-ICCOM of Pisa, as well as the restoration, inventory checking, updating of the classification and filing, and digitisation with HD photos of about 1,000 specimens including coins, medals, tokens and merchant badges by specialists Monica Baldassarri, Luca Lupi, Francesco Pagliani, Mauro Stallone and Chiara Valcepina. For some particularly significant pieces, photographs have been taken that, with the help of Open Source software, make it possible to have a restitution with a 'Reflectance Transformation Imaging' effect - multiple reflectance lighting, by Roberto Scopigno, Gianpaolo Palma, Elena Siotto, CNR-ISTI of Pisa.
To illustrate the new exhibition and the accompanying digital information system, there will be two free guided tours on Saturday 4, at 4 p.m., and Sunday 5 November, at 11 a.m., as part of the Ministry of Culture's initiative allowing free admission to state museums and cultural sites.
http://www.polomusealetoscana.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/204/pisa-museo-nazionale-di-san-matteo
