19 Jan. 1587 (from Antwerp): “Grata mihi fuit nepos carissime diligentia et cura tua in indagando Wigandecuae situ. Quam modo cognosco ex fragmento tabulae ad te misso, atque à te remisso, habeo gratias. Lubens quoque intellexi te circa historiam versari, cum ceterarum rerum enim et scientiarum cognitio ad multa conducit, sed pro natura loci, personae, aut temporis; habet hoc propriae historia, quod Semper, ubique, et omni homini, situ sui, utilitati, et honori. Sed fortassae derunt tibi in hoc negocio libri. Si paud me esses, erorum copias haberes; habeo namque (absit verbo iactancia) bibliothecam mediocriter instructam. Huic addidi numismatum ex omni aere numerum et delectum talem, ut de iis cum quovis his regionibus contenderè ausim. His enim, libris nempe et nummis, credo me impendisse ultra duo millia coronatorum. Quaeris an nullus exstet liber qui aversas numismatum partes explicet: non quod sciam, generatim; imò neque ullus singulatim, pro argumenti exignetia. Quidam Aeneas Vicus edidit duodecim primorum Imperatorum numismata, cum índice nomenclatorio (ut ea voce utar) ómnium rerum quae in eijs spectantur, quem laborem non possum non laudare. Alius quidam Sebastianus Ericius longa commentari scripsit in Imperatorum numismatum postica singna: sed frigida sanè. Constantius quidam Landus idem praestitit felicius, sed in valde pauca. In Julii, Augusti, et Tiberij, scripsit commentaria Wolfgangus Lazius, docta, peritis tamen antiquaris non ita satisfacientia. Fulvius Ursinus meo iudicio omnium doctissimè, ad consulares nummos, in eo volumine, quod de Familiis Romanorum inscripsit. A. Occo, et H. Goltzius qui praestiterit, ex eius lucubrationibus quae exstant, te minimè ignorare puto. Huius auctoris, Julij Caesaris exemplar tibi mitto, quod boni consules. Accipies illud per Joannem Woudnellum quem nesoti, alterum eiusdem, quod cum tuo coniunxi D. Emanueli trades, meo nomine. Adieci his icones nympharum quasdam, Petro fratri tuo, et imagunculam ex argeno, Isabellae sororculae tuae. Per eundem mittit soror mea quaedam semina ex hortulo (horto dicere nequeo) nostro, sed ni fallor, ululas Athenas. Eidem dedi semina Maraviliae, et si fortè non habeas, floris solis. Africani floris nancisci non potui, alias quoque missurus. Quae de Graecorum nummis ex me scire cupis, ignoro, tu mob eius linguae imperitiam, tum ex talium nummorum raritatem. Si maior eorum copia nobis esset, fortè collatio eorundem in his aliquid lucis adferret. Est Philippi nummus apud me valde integer, in quo haec ΔΗΜΑΡΧЄΣ(reversed)ΟΥΣΙΑΣΥΠΑΤΟΣ sine ullis punctis, ut hic vides. Tu cogita de caractere, in ordine octavo, hac ut vides forma (reversed sigma), numeri notam ne significet, non enim est sygma, etsi inversa videatur, nam haec hoc modo C. in omnibus quos hactenus viderim nummis expirmitur. Opus meum quod sub Plantini prelo est, circa D. Johannis festum absolvebitur, opitulante Deo, atque tunc de profectione ad vos cogitabimus. Sed dies docebit. Interim vale” (New York, The Morgan Library and Museum, LHMS, Unbound International Ortelius; Hessels 1887, no. 149, p. 345-347).
['You ask if there is any book which explains the reverse sides of coins; there is nothing I know that does so generally; moreover, neither is there anything that does so individually, for lack of evidence. A certain Enea Vico published coins of the first twelve emperors, with an index of terms (as I would call it), for all the things which can be seen on them. I cannot not praise this work. Another person, Sebastiano Erizzo, wrote long commentaries, on the types on the reverses of coins of the emperors: but it’s really trivial. One Costanzo Landi published the same thing more successfully, but really on only a few things. Wolfgang Lazius wrote learned commentaries on Julius, Augustus and Tiberius. Hoever, they are not so satisfactory for experienced antiquaries. Fulvio Orsini, in my judgment, is the most scholarly of all, on Republican coins, in the book, which he wrote about the families of the Romans. How A. Occo and H. Goltz have excelled: I think you can hardly not know what is good among the latters published deliberations. I am sending you a copy of his Julius Caesar, which you will consult with profit. ... Another copy of the same for you to give for your comrade Mr Emanuel [van Meteren], in my name. ... I don’t know the things which you want to learn from me about coins of the Greeks, both because of my inexperience of this language and because of the rarity of such coins. If I had more of them, perhaps a comparison of them would bring something to light about these matters. I do have a really perfect coin of Philip on which is this ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ΕΞΟΥΣΙΑΣ ΥΠΑΤΟ Ϛ without any punctuation, as you see here. Reflect yourself upon the character, in eighth place, as you see with this shape [a reversed Σ], whether it does not indicate a numeral. For it is not a sigma, although it looks like a reversed one. For this is shown in this way Σ on all the coins which I have seen so far.' (partial translation from Burnett 2020b, pp. 214-5 and 216)]
