Regesta originates within a long-standing line of research devoted to the history of numismatic literature, developed over the years with particular attention to private libraries as privileged instruments for understanding the evolution of studies on coinage.
Private numismatic libraries, in fact, constitute an observatory of exceptional significance: within their structure are reflected scholarly orientations, research trajectories, and modes of knowledge transmission that rarely emerge with equal clarity in institutional collections. Within this perspective, Regesta takes shape as an initiative of study and documentation dedicated to these holdings.
The project examines the structure of collections, the presence of reference works, the chronological and thematic distribution of volumes, and the criteria that have guided their formation.
The research from which it derives has been conducted continuously since 2008; only in recent years, and particularly in 2024, was it deemed appropriate to provide it with a formal designation and an organized framework, in order to make explicit a body of practices already consolidated and to define more precisely its position within the field of studies on the history of numismatic literature.
The investigation distinguishes between extant libraries, dispersed historical collections, and private archival holdings, integrating documentary sources with information gathered through direct relationships with scholars and collectors. For existing libraries, the analysis is based on direct examination; for dispersed collections, it relies on sale catalogues and inventories, with the aim of reconstructing their composition and the dynamics of their dispersal.
This framework is complemented by the consideration of private archives, including manuscripts and documentary materials, correspondence, notes, drafts, and unpublished texts. Finally, Regesta does not aim to be a systematic census, but rather a research tool documenting the circulation of works among scholars, collectors, and the antiquarian book trade.