Mazzini, Giuseppe (1883-1961)
by Hadrien Rambach
Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian politician, born in Livorno but settled in Turin, who was elected a Deputy (Member of Parliament) in 1921. Expelled from the Italian Liberal Party in 1925, he then ran under the aegis of the National Fascist Party, and was elected Senator in 1943. He acted as advisor to numerous companies, including Fiat, and was president of the newspaper La Stampa. A passionate fencer, he became president of the Confederazione Italiana di Scherma in 1925, and in 1953 President of the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime.
His extensive collection of Monete imperiali romane, some 8,051 coins of which 1,261 in gold, was published in five major volumes in 1957-1958, prior to its dispersal. The Milanese dealer Mario Ratto acquired most of them en-bloc, before selling them privately – notably to Leo Biaggi, but Mazzini had previously offered some 2,737 coins to the Turin museum (including some gold medallions and very rare aurei).
Bibliography:
- Anna Serena Fava, Luigi Sachero and Vittorio Viale, Il medagliere delle raccolte numismatiche torinesi, Turin 1964, p. 9; Giovanni Gorini, “Aspetti del collezionismo numismatico italiano nel ‘900”, in Bollettino di Numismatica, vol. 54 (2010), pp. 83-107.
- Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 91: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part I, Zurich, 23 May 2016, pp. [67]-[79].
- Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 99: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part II, Zurich, 29 May 2017, pp. 47-63.
- Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 105: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part III, Zurich, 9 May 2018, pp. 82-105.
This article was first published in a catalogue of auction house Numismatica Ars Classica.
