The publication of the volume documenting the scientific analyses carried out in 2018 on the relics of the bodies of St. Ambrose and the martyrs Gervasus and Protasus - kept in a silver urn in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Ambrose in...
moreThe publication of the volume documenting the scientific analyses carried out in 2018 on the relics of the bodies of St. Ambrose and the martyrs Gervasus and Protasus - kept in a silver urn in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan - was also an opportunity for a new presentation of the coins, found in the investigations that in the 19th century brought to light the two loculi in which the three holy bodies were initially deposited. They are now known only thanks to the descriptions and drawings that Monsignor Luigi Biraghi published in the booklet "I tre sepolcri santambrosiani" (1864; see also C. Perassi, Note preliminari per una rilettura della documentazione numismatica dai sepolcri santambrosiani, in "Studia ambrosiana", 3, 2009, pp. 167-181).
The paper also presents seven unpublished coins found in a small box kept in the Archivio Capitolare of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio,
on which is written "Monete antiche trovate negli scavi della tomba di S. Ambrogio". In reality, these are not only ancient specimens. The oldest is an illegible as of Antonine age, but the most recent is dated 1822.
