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The Collections | Coins | Exhibitions | Encounters: Travel and Money in the Byzantine World
15 February 2007 – 15 January 2008
Coin Gallery
Encounters:
Travel and Money in the Byzantine World
The Byzantine gold solidus has been described by modern historians as ‘the Dollar of the Middle Ages’, and was in use from Britain in the west to China in the east. The story of Byzantine coins is essentially one of people meeting in city markets and rural communities, along pilgrimage routes, as ambassadors in foreign lands and in customs offices at the empire’s harbours and borders. Byzantine coins found beyond the realm are evidence of its enormous influence, direct and indirect, while motifs found on the currency of other lands echo the progress of Byzantine culture and ideas of kingship, as Byzantium fluctuated in influence and power through the middle ages.
Encounters is the first part of an exciting partnership between the Barber Institute and the British Museum and, by presenting 210 superb objects from British and foreign collections, celebrates important aspects of artistic, religious, social and economic encounters between Byzantium, western medieval Europe and the Middle East.
Encounters: Travel and Money in the Byzantine World, by the Barber’s Keeper of Coins, Eurydice Georganteli, and Barrie Cook, from the British Museum, has been declared one of the runners-up in the prestigious AXA Art/Art Newspaper Exhibition Catalogue Award 2007.
Encounters, a vibrant portrayal of the politics, trade, travel and commerce in the Byzantine empire, was short-listed from over 180 publications published by museums and galleries throughout the UK and Eire, and Dr Georganteli, together with the colleagues from the Barber Institute and publisher Dan Giles, were presented with the award at an exclusive award ceremony held at Tate Modern recently.
The judges announced that Encounters was ‘admired for encompassing so much in such a small publication. It is the product of profound numismatic scholarship, used to recount history through the evidence of coinage: for example, what the archaeological finds of Byzantine coinage tell us about early medieval Scandinavia, which at the time was a non-monetary economy,’ the citation continued.
The book also won the Royal Numismatic Society Lhotka Memorial Prize 2007.