'The nicely written title page of the Graeca Numismata sets out its contents, indicating that it was prepared in Antwerp in 1588 and finalised in London the following year (see figures 8.5–6):
"GRÆCA
NVMISMATA
EXTERNORVM REGVM AC PO-
PVLORVM DESCRIPTA ET EXPOSITA
Opera Iac. Colij Orteliani,
anno 1588 Antuerpiæ
1589
Londini"
Despite the title, it seems that he originally conceived of the work as a catalogue of his coins, since on the back of the title page we find the same six-line poem that appears in his annotated copy of Occo. Here, however, it has been deleted, apparently by Cole, even though the work does largely fulfil the poem’s promise. This seems to be because he later changed his mind and intended the book to be published, as he sets out in his greeting to the reader:
"LECTORI S. Quis cuique genti populove typus in suo nummo usui fuit, scripsit Matthæus Hostus, primo libro rei nummarij veteris. Ego hoc mihi seorsum describens, & ex alijs tum authoribus, tum ipsis nummis similia adjungens, ita libellum meum audauctum depraehendo, ut minimam ejus partem Hosto acceptam feram. Plurimum enim descripsi ex Henriciuberti Goltzij magna Graecia et Sicilia, item Wolfgango Lazio, et alijs, quorum authoritatem singulis ex illis discerptis nummus duabus literis implexus annotavi, quae subtus explicabuntur. Fuere quidem omnia fere numismata graecis literis inscripta, quae ego latine scribere malui, quod quibusvis lectorib’s Latina scriptio quam Græca magis sit familiaris. Qui autem Graeca regionum regumq’ nomina cupiat, consulat Ortelij & Goltzij thesauros. In ipsis enim nummis, ultra primas tres aut quatuor literas, non leguntur. Pluriu’ quoque nationum extare numismata quam ego descripsi non me latet, at donec aut nummi aut eorum fide descriptiones nobis ad manus pervenerint, nudis nominibus, lector contentus erit, quae in Goltzij thesauro ex numismatibus descripta abunde legere poterit.
MH Matheus Hostus
HG Hubertus [changed from "Henricus"] Goltzius
WL Wolfganghus Lazius
FV Fulvius Ursinus
AEV Aenea Vico Parmigiano
GDC Guillaume du Choul
ALP Antoine Le Pois
O Nummus Abr. Ortelij"
[GREETING TO THE READER. Matthew Host has written in the first book of Ancient Numismatics about the types which were used for each race or people on their coins. I am making this separate description for myself, and adding similar things both from other authors and from the coins themselves, and thereby set out my enlarged little book in such a way that I include a very small part taken from Host. Most of my descriptions are taken from Henryubertus Goltzius’s Magna Graecia and Sicily, also from Wolfgang Lazius and others, whose authority for the pieces taken from them I have marked by bracketing them with two letters, which will be explained below. Nearly all the coins were inscribed with Greek letters, which I have preferred to write in Latin, because Latin script is more familiar for every reader than Greek. Whoever wants the Greek names of regions and kings should consult the Treasuries of Ortelius and Goltzius. For they cannot be read on the coins themselves, beyond the first three or four letters. It does not escape me that there are coins of more nations than I have described, but until either the coins themselves or reliable descriptions of them come into my hands, the reader should be content with the bare names, since he will be able to read them fully described from coins in the Treasury of Goltzius.]'
(Burnett 2020b, pp. 224-5)
