Argelati, Filippo. De Monetis Italiae Variorum Illustrium Virorum Dissertationes, Quarum Pars Nunc Primum in Lucem Prodit. Mediolani (Milan). 1750-1759. In six volumes. Fine.Octavo. A beautifully matched complete set of this work, all hardbound in contemporary white vellum. Each with a tan spine label, lettered and bordered in gilt. The head and feet of the spines have gilt ornaments, but only on the first four volumes. Page ends finished with purple or red speckling. Extensive engravings throughout, including many full-page plates and additional enlarged foldout plates. Most volumes with minor wormholes, volume IV being the most affected wherein they are somewhat well developed inside the covers and entering into the front end paper. Bindings are fairly solid with only minor short separations in the joints inside of some covers. The pages are mostly bright and clean. Volume I with bookplates of Italian politician, Livio Benentendi (1814-1896), Petri Ginori-Contii, and Dr. Ferdinando Bassoli inside the front cover. Volumes II through IV and VI have bookplates of Benentendi and Bassoli only, while Volume V has only that of Benentendi. The first three volumes were published in 1750, the fourth in 1759 and the final two in 1759. An extensive early study on Italian numismatics, remarkable for its scope. This reference along with the work on Italian coinage by Guido Antonio Zanetti, offered later in this sale, are considered highly significant antiquarian numismatic books. When Dr. Ferdinando Bassoli wrote his own study on such early literature, <em>Antiquarian Books on Coins and Medals: From the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century</em>, he devoted an entire chapter to these two books. Bassoli pointed out that the content of this one was remarkable, with “some eighty discourses, plus various texts and documents detailed in almost 2000 pages of text.” This set realized $6,900 in the January 2009 Kolbe sale, where it last appeared.From the D. Brent Pogue Library. Earlier ex Livio Benentendi; Petri Ginori-Contii; Dr. Ferdinando Bassoli, George Frederick Kolbe, January 2009, lot 109.