Veronese currency area
The Veronese currency area is part of the medieval geography of currency, which began in the northern Italian city of Verona in the first half of the 10th century and expanded northwards across the Alps into the 13th century . The leading coin of the currency area was the Veronese denarius or pfennig , which was also referred to as the Berner or Perner after the medieval German name Bern for Verona . The Veronese currency area lasted until the introduction of the Imperial Coin Order in 1551.
Creation of the Veronese currency area
The currency area around Verona formed after the Magyars had devastated eastern northern Italy in repeated raids from 899 onwards. The path over the central Brenner Pass , protected by the mountains , became more important and a new mint was opened in Verona at the starting point of this new transit route across the Alps . It was in operation by 924/26 at the latest. From then on, the Italian kings Rudolf II , Hugo and his son Lothar II , as well as Berengar II and his son Adalbert von Ivrea minted coins with their names in Verona. From 961/62 Emperor Otto I had denarii minted with his name in Verona. Verona remained an imperial mint until the end of the 12th century, whereby the denarii or silver pennies struck here became noticeably smaller and thinner.
Expansion of the currency area
At the beginning of the 13th century, these bowl-shaped small coins could no longer meet the requirements as a supraregional trade coin . Shortly after 1230, therefore, grossi of 20 small Bernese were minted, which could now be used again as a stable silver coin for transalpine trade. As early as 1180 Trento began to mint small denarii according to the Veronese foot , and after 1236 the grossi were also struck in the episcopal city.
Even more important was the start of the minting of coins based on the Veronese foot in Merano . Here too, small Veronese pennies with the inscriptions COMES T and MARANO had been minted before 1259, before Count Meinhard II of Tyrol started minting eagle groschen. Like the grossi in Verona and Trento, these were initially valid for twenty pfennigs, but after a new, heavier groschen coin was minted in Merano from 1274 , the eagle groschen were devalued to 18 pfennigs. The new twenties Merano proved to be very successful and received in the Italian-speaking region the name Tirolini, in the German language after double cross on the front of the name cruiser .
The monetary system now consisted of the following denominations : 1 Kreuzer = 5 = 20 four Berner. 12 Kreuzers or 240 Berners made up one pound , ten pounds were one mark in the Veronese currency area . However, the pound and mark were units of account that were not minted as coins.
Eagle eggs and cruisers were extremely popular and widespread in the late Middle Ages. Since there was hardly any minting in Merano, various minters began to mint these coins. Such additions were made in the mints of Cortemilia under Margrave Odonus III. by Carretto between 1283 and 1313, Incisa before 1311, Ivrea before 1311, Acqui under Bishop Odonus Bellingeri (1305-1337), Mantua (from 1311 to 1407), Treviso (from approx. 1321), Padua (from approx. 1320), Vicenza (1320 to 1329), Parma (1341 to 1344), Aquileia under the patriarch Marquard I von Randeck (1365-1381), Crevacuore , Zurich from 1470/80, Passau under Bishop Ulrich III. von Nussdorf (1451–1479), Vienna 1467/68, Wiener Neustadt (1470 to 1472) and in Hals-Leuchtenberg .
The Merano coinage in the Veronese currency system was expressly referred to in German-language legal records of the late Middle Ages as "Perner Meraner müncz" , before the Tyrolean mint was moved from Merano to Hall in Tyrol in 1477 , where the Kreuzer and Vierer (four Bernese pieces) continued to go to Veronese / Meraner Fuß were coined.
The end of the currency area
In 1387 Verona fell to the Visconti of Milan , in 1405 the city came under the rule of Venice . This ended the independent minting activity in Verona, and the city and its surrounding area left the Veronese currency area. In Tyrol , however, people continued to calculate and pay for coins according to the Veronese foot, which were initially minted in Merano and later in Hall in Tyrol.
The end of the Veronese currency area came with the efforts to establish an imperial coinage system in the 16th century. From 1551 the thaler became the most important coin in the empire , but the cruiser lived on as the last remnant of the Veronese currency area.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hannes Obermair : Bozen Süd - Bolzano Nord. Written form and documentary tradition of the city of Bozen up to 1500. Volume 2 . City of Bozen, Bozen 2008, ISBN 978-88-901870-1-8 , p. 53 No. 944 ( Bozen document from 1417) .
literature
- Helmut Rizzolli, Federico Pigozzo: The Veronese currency area. Verona and Tyrol (= Runkelsteiner writings on cultural history. Volume 8). Athesia, Bozen 2015, ISBN 978-88-6839-139-3 .