The Hidden Treasures of this Happy Island

Andrew Burnett was Deputy Director of the British Museum from 2002 to 2013, having spent his previous career in the Department of Coins and Medals. He was appointed a CBE by the Queen in the New Year’s Honours of 2012, and he is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He is past President of the Royal Numismatic Society, the Roman Society and the International Numismatic Commission. He has been awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society, the Jeton de Vermeil of the French Numismatic Society and the Huntington Medal of the American Numismatic Society.

Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Dates, names and abbreviations xvii
List of illustrations xxi

Part I. The 16th century: a humanist beginning 1
1. A Tudor overture: Tunstall, More and Elyot 3
2. Queen Elizabeth and the Twelve Caesars 39
3. Aristocratic and court collections in the 16th century 57
4. Sir Thomas Smith and the Cambridge connection 69

Part II. The discovery of Britain: William Camden and his circle, c. 1600 93
5. Antecedents: Twyne, Harrison, North’s Plutarch and Rogers 95
6. ‘The common Sun, whereat our modern Writers have all lighted their little
Torches’: Camden and Britannia 115
7. ‘A most excellent Serraglio of Antiquitie’: Sir Robert Cotton’s coin collection 143
8. James Cole and the Dutch circle in London 193
9. John Speed and the beginnings of coin illustration in England 231
10. ‘Un uomo curiosissimo’: John Harrison 245
11. Sir Thomas Knyvett: the first catalogue 259
12. Coins and history: Edmund Bolton and John Selden 269

Part III. The rise of royal, aristocratic and institutional collections in the 17th century 305
13. Prince Henry and the English royal collection 307
14. Aristocratic collections of the 17th century 351
15. ‘Not only an Ornament, but an useful and necessary Appendage to a Library’: Cambridge and Oxford Universities and other institutions 379
16. Archbishop James Ussher 467
17. The English metrologists 477
18. ‘A great valuer of History and Coins’: Sir Simonds D’Ewes 505

Part IV. The Restoration and revival of the late 17th century 547
19. The British chronographers 549
20. Exploring the Greek and Roman East 567
21. Further East 645
22. Jewish coins in England 675
23. British history and the antiquaries 699
24. A polymath and his coins: Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich 745
25. William Courten (alias Charleton) and the Collectio Curtinia 757
26. Francis Sambrooke: a forgotten collector 779
27. A late start: Scotland 785
28. The ‘Battle of the Medals’ 819
29. Ralph Thoresby of Leeds 851

Part V. ‘Hidden treasures’: unveiled in the early 18th century 877
30. Writing the history of the national coinages 879
31. Visitors and residents from abroad 933
32. ‘Un sçavant homme’: John (Jean) Masson 981
33. Aristocratic and royal collections of the 18th century 997
34. ‘A very comely Person, and extremely well accomplished’: Sir Andrew Fountaine 1083
35. Martin Folkes and classical coinage 1105
36. Three doctors: Hans Sloane, Denton Nicholas and Richard Mead 1115

Part VI. Conclusion 1141
37. Numismatics in context 1143

Register of collectors and numismatists, arranged chronologically 1179

Appendices and specific studies
1. Thomas More’s coins and seals 1337
2. Catherine Parr 1342
3. Coin terms in Thomas Elyot’s Dictionary 1343
4. The letters of Roger Ascham 1356
5. The images in North’s Plutarch 1366
6. Camden’s coins of Claudius 1367
7. Cotton’s post-Conquest coins 1379
8. John Stow on the English coinage 1386
9. James Cole’s catalogue of Ortelius’s Republican coins 1389
10. Coins in Edmund Bolton’s Nero 1391
11. Selden’s use of coins in Titles of Honor 1397
12. Sir Thomas Roe’s letter to Lucy Bedford 1406
13. The coin collection of Abraham Gorlaeus 1408
14. Abraham van Doort’s account of his time as curator of the royal coin collection 1417
15. The 1652 list of the royal coin collection 1418
16. Roman Republican coins in the Royal collection 1420
17. The ‘crowned C’ countermark 1428
18. Gold coins in the collection of King Charles II 1429
19. The coin drawings and paintings of the younger Henrick van der Borcht 1440
20. ‘The Roman Collection at Christ-Church’ 1444
21. Archbishop Laud’s gift of coins to Oxford 1453
22. Coins in Ussher’s Annales 1456
23. D’Ewes on 17th century coin collections 1459
24. D’Ewes on the Oxford and Cambridge collections, and on Barkham’s catalogue 1462
25. Roman imperial coins in the collection of Simonds D’Ewes 1465
26. The sale of the Earl of Winchilsea’s coins to Simonds D’Ewes, 1646 1467
27. D’Ewes’s gold coins and the British Museum collection 1471
28. Coins and medals borrowed from Oxford by Simonds D’Ewes 1473
29. Coins for D’Ewes’s book illustrations in the National Library of Ireland 1475
30. Walter Stonehouse’s Coin Catalogue, 1654 1479
31. Isaac Barrow to Abraham Hill, 1658 1482
32. Classicising the British coinage 1484
33. Coins acquired by the Royal Society 1489
34. John Aubrey’s hoard of late Roman coins from Heddington 1494
35. William Courten’s coin acquisitions in BL Sloane MS 3988 1496
36. Sharp papers 1501
37. George Wheler’s coins 1507
38. The letters of William Crosse, 1715–16 1520
39. Accounts of John Kemp’s collection of coins 1525
40. John Ward on the Roman As 1529
41. Robert Sibbald’s use of coins as evidence for the Roman occupation of Scotland 1531
42. James Sutherland’s coin catalogue 1534
43. Numismatic correspondence of James Sutherland and other Scots, c. 1700 1537
44. Ralph Trumbull’s collection 1549
45. Nicolson and Lhwyd on ancient British coins – or Roman amulets? 1552
46. Lists of Numismatists in Britain 1556
47. Subscribers to Haym’s Tesoro 1571
48. Tenzel on 17th-century numismatics 1573
49. Jobert on numismatic literature 1574
50. Winchilsea’s copy of his manuscript on Athenian coins, 1719 1576
51. Proof copies of the Pembroke catalogue 1578
52. Pembroke’s Anglo-Saxon coins in Fountaine 1580
53. Notes on Haym 1582
54. Haym and Jezreel Jones 1586
55. Letters and diary entries concerning Andrew Fountaine’s interests in coins 1589
56. Fountaine’s Roman coins in Banduri 1619
57. Inventory of Andrew Fountaine’s House and Library 1623
58. Jonathan Swift and coins and medals 1626
59. Henry Prescott’s diary 1630
60. Thomas Hearne on Thomas Granger’s coins 1633
61. John Byrom’s diary, 1725–48 1635
62. Some letters from Philipp von Stosch (1691–1757) 1637
63. The later history of the Devonshire collection 1644
64. ‘Rare Coins in Some Cabinets I have Seen, of our English Money’, 1736–7 1649
65. Letters from Browne Willis to John Bettesworth (1733–35) 1653
66. Beaupré Bell’s Tabulae Augustae 1655
67. Numismatic letters of Maurice Johnson 1660
68. Duplicate coins in the Sloane and early British Museum collections 1663
69. Lists of coins bought by Richard Mead 1665
70. British books in early numismatic bibliographies 1669
71. Coins in the letters and diary of William Stukeley 1675
72. Collecting medals 1679
73. The fate of the Pembroke collection 1685

SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Manuscripts and annotated books 1691
2. Bibliography 1705

INDICES
1. Personal Names 1759
2. Places 1792
3. Hoards and Finds 1798
4. Coinages 1799
5. Auctioneers/auction houses 1801
6. General Index 1802