Bartolomeo Borghesi

Bust of Bartolomeo Borghesi (1781–1860), historian and numismatist; the country name "SAN MARINO", the inscription "Bartolomeo Borghesi", the year 2004, the initials of designer Ettore Lorenzo Frapiccini and the "R" mintmark.

Bartolomeo Borghesi is still regarded today as one of the most important epigraphers and numismatists of the 19th century - an assessment that reaches far beyond the borders of San Marino. Born in 1781 in Savignano sul Rubicone, he withdrew to Monte Titano after the political upheavals of the Napoleonic era and lived permanently in San Marino from 1821 onward. There he developed a scholarly output that brought him into contact with leading scholars across Europe: with Theodor Mommsen, with the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in Paris, with researchers in England and Germany. His studies on Roman chronology, ancient coin series and Latin inscriptions set methodological standards that had a lasting impact on classical antiquity studies. His nine-volume main work, the Œuvres complètes, published posthumously, documents a scholarship that was still cited in the field well into the 20th century.

For San Marino, Borghesi is more than a historical celebrity - he embodies the intellectual pull that the small republic exerted on European thinkers, and the aspiration to combine scholarship with independence. He died in 1860 in San Marino, held in high honour, and was buried there. On the occasion of his 200th birthday and in memory of his work, San Marino honoured the scholar in 2004 with a commemorative issue.