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© Museu Arqueològic de l’Esquerda
Omeka ID 2959
L'Esquerda, sector medieval
Medieval

Louis the Pious silver coin

MART-002115/067

Object type
coin
Production date
814 / 840
Fabric
-
Museum
Museu Arqueològic de l’Esquerda
Culture
Medieval
Discovery location
L'Esquerda, sector medieval
Materials
silver
Township
Masies de Roda, Les (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Barcelona, Osona)
Technique
minting
Where is it?
-
Dimensions
2,04 cm
Description
This coin belongs to the type known as Temple money, due to the peculiar architectural structure represented on the reverse. Its issues were common in the Carolingian Empire during the governments of Charlemagne and his son, Louis the Pious, who was proclaimed king of Aquitaine in 781 and succeeded him as emperor from 814 to 840. An allusion to the basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, precisely the scene of the coronation of Charlemagne, has sometimes been seen in the architecture of the reverse. However, it seems that the appearance of the Vatican basilica was very different at that time. It is also related to the facade of San Martín de Tours or the palatine chapel of Aachen. According to Manuel Castiñeiras, it could be a very prestigious and well-known architectural model in Christian iconography: the aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which has the same characteristics as the temple that appears on the coin: tetrastyle solution of the portico and its double crowned pediment by the cross (seen on the Monza bottles made in Palestine in the second half of the 6th century). The image fits into the Carolingian programme of renovatio christiana imperii, in which Charlemagne wanted to present himself as the new Constantine to become the universal emperor. The cult of the Holy Cross and the Sepulchre of Christ, inaugurated by the first Christian emperor, were then the new currencies of the Charlemagne dynasty.

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