VII.14.5 Pompeii. Casa del Cambio or Casa del Banchiere or Casa
della Regina d’Inghilterra.
(Strada dell’Abbondanza 40)
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VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Doorway to room 4, small room or cupboard. Looking west.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Doorway to room 5, small room or cupboard. Looking west.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 1, looking south-east across atrium.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 1, south-east corner of atrium.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 6, ala on east side of atrium.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. Drawing by Nicola La Volpe, March 1839, of painting seen on south wall of ala.
The painting showed a letter closed by five seals and a sack of money.
See Helbig, W.,
1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv
verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, (1727).
Now in Naples
Archaeological Museum. Inventory number ADS 764.
Photo © ICCD. https://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it/
Utilizzabili alle condizioni della licenza Attribuzione
- Non commerciale - Condividi allo stesso modo 2.5 Italia (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 IT)
According to Espen B. Andersson [email] –
VII.14.5
Here there were found the fragments of a money chest, but no
report of a base.
I checked by Pernice, he has no chest fragments with Priapus
and/or Bacchus.
I was not aware of PAH III 1839 page 148; where it is stated
that they dug “in una piccola stanzetta della casa (…)”
This tends to indicate that the money chest stood in this
little room, and that it was an apotheca (storeroom).
A money chest inside a little room is possible as there are
examples of a few money chests inside small rooms in the Roman Empire, but not
in Pompeii.
As said above I did not know the reference to PAH III 1839 page
148. The only excavation reference I knew for this money chest was to PAH
II, page 365.
This PAH information came from:
L. Breglia, Circolazione
monetale ed aspetti di vita economica a Pompei, in: Pompeiana. Raccolta di
Studi per il secondo centenario degli scavi di Pompei. Biblioteca de La Parola
del Passato 4 (Naples 1950), TABELLA ‘B’, no. 18.
(L. Breglia does not inform more than giving this
reference.)
PAH II, 1839 page 365 1st March says:
Per ordine
ministeriale si è eseguito altro scavo, a sinistra la strada de' Mercatanti, e
proprio quella di fronte alla casa detta dell'Imperatore, ove si sono raccolti
vari frammenti di una cassa adornata di bronzo; tra i quali adornamenti due
busti di donna, ed un gruppetto di due figure una di Bacco e l'altra di Priapo,
ed una moneta di oro di Vespasiano, e due lucchetti di bronzo.
This translates as:
By ministerial order, another excavation was carried out, on
the left of the street of the merchants, and right in front of the house of the
Emperor, where various fragments of a chest adorned with bronze were collected;
among which ornaments were two busts of women, and a small group of two
figures, one of Bacchus and the other of Priapus, and a gold coin of Vespasian,
and two bronze padlocks.
PAH III Addenda, 1839, page 148, 2nd March says:
1 Marzo. Alle
12 di Francia si è portata in questi Reali stabilimenti una compagnia di nobili
signori Inglesi, diunita al sig. cav. Bianchi, ed in loro presenza si è
eseguito uno scavo, in una piccola stanzetta della casa a sinistra la strada
dei Mercatanti, e proprio quella che tiene l'uscita al vicoletto del forno, e
si è raccolto. Bronzo. Moltissimi frammenti di una cassa, tra' quali due
piccoli busti di donna ed un gruppetto di un Fauno ed un Priapo, forse
ornamenti della stessa, e tra le terre una moneta di oro dell'imperatore
Vespasiano.
This translates as:
March 1. At 12 o'clock in the afternoon of France, a company
of noble English gentlemen arrived in these Royal establishments, joined by sig.
Cav. Bianchi, and in their presence an excavation was carried out, in a small
room of the house on the left of the street of the Merchants, and precisely the
one that leads to the vicolo del Forno, and there was collected:-
Bronze. Many fragments of a chest, among which two small
busts of a woman and a small group of a Faun and a Priapus, perhaps ornaments
of the same, and among the earth a gold coin of the Emperor Vespasian.
As I own a copy of “G. Fiorelli, Descrizione di
Pompei, Napoli 1875”, I checked if he had a money chest in VII.14.5.
He deals with the house on page 300-302, but he mentions no
money chest !
Instead Fiorelli mentions a painted little money sack in the
ala of the atrium:
“(…) un sacchetto
di monete, sul quale erano segnate alcune lettere ora scomparse.” page 301.
Our thanks to Espen B. Andersson for helping us with our
interest in money chests and bases.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Doorway to room 7.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 7, north and east walls.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Doorway to room 8.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 8, north-west corner.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 8, door threshold or sill.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 1, looking south-west in atrium.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Looking north from atrium towards south portico and garden area.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Looking north-east from atrium towards east end of south portico.
VII.14.5 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 9, east end of south portico.
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