Saints and sinners. Coins in medieval ritual context

Abstract

This article is a revised version of papers prepared for the conferences in Cambridge and Oslo. It is focused on the way how to interpret coins occurring in the medieval graves of saints as well as in the graves of ordinary people defined by L. Travaini as ‘sinners’. In the case of the term ‘ritual’, the author is interested in its general religious use, public and private, having in mind that medieval people had an uninterrupted relationship with the other world. Angels, saints and demons were integrated into any ritual, even in that which can appear as ‘civic’ today, including blessing and presence of clerics. In that way, any contexts – once seen as ‘ritual’ – must be seen as ‘economic’ in present numismatic research, and the author shows it on concrete examples from Italy and other European countries. Some finds, once seen as signs of economic activities, can be seen as rituals today.