Dattari (Dattari-Savio, D, DS)

Dattari, G. Numi Augg. Alexandrini. (Cairo, 1901).

Probably the finest Alexandrian collection ever created. Written in Italian, but easy to use. Coin plates of all the types are the best anywhere. Some date reading problems occur in the catalog and there are other errors not cited in the errata. Dattari-Savio is a recently published a large volume of the original Dattari coin rubbings (along with 7000 additional coins not described). If you purchase the Dattari book also get Dattari-Savio. These volumes are for the specialist. Date placements are not as accurate as Milne or BMC. The Dattari-Savio plates are not available online.

Available online:

https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig01datt

https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig02datt

Giovanni Dattari (1853 - 1923)

Giovanni Dattari (1853 - 1923) was a self-taught collector and successful trader of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities. He held a near monopoly in the antiquities trade in Cairo, Egypt. He also shared his expertise and first-hand knowledge of Egypt with the foremost scholars of his time. Dattari assembled a collection of over 25,000 ancient coins. His 1901 work, Numi Augg. Alexandrini, cataloged 6411 of his coins from Roman Alexandria, and is still a primary reference for the coinage of Roman Egypt. Dattari also made pencil rubbings of more than 13,000 coins from Roman Alexandria in his collection; these were finally published in 2007 by Adriano Savio. In 1920, Dattari donated large parts of his collection to the Museo Nazionale Romano. After his death, the remainder of his collection was sold.