Lexicon Iconographicum Numismaticae (LIN)

The Lexicon Iconographicum Numismaticae (LIN), which has the patronage of the International Numismatic Council (since 2005) and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (since 2009), consists of a method of interpreting the principal and secondary images found on ancient and medieval coins of the Mediterranean area collected by subject. The principle on which this interpretive method is based is the analogy between monetary iconographic language and verbal language. The aim is to explain the meaning of the iconographic monetary types in their historical context by applying a criterion that is as objective and scientific as possible. The extensive collection of data, conducted on documents ranging from the origins of the monetary phenomenon to the medieval age, makes it possible to grasp the "temporal" and "historical" status of the images and their belonging to categories that are also defined in terms of cultural "continuity" and "discontinuity." Thus is reconstructed "the history of the coin type," or the "stratigraphy" of its meaning, which recovers the relationship between images, the realities they represent, and the cultural context of their use. A volume series "Semata and Signa. Studies in Monetary Iconography," has been created to collect studies and seminar meetings of methodological nature linked to the Lexicon Iconographicum Numismaticae . The research group has been organizing Congresses and Seminars and the LIN method has already been tested with excellent results both through monographic surveys and in numerous graduate and doctoral thesis works.