San Pietro martire e le monete

Brother Peter of Verona became an inquisitor on behalf of Pope Innocent IV, was killed in 1252 and canonized the following year. These pages investigate the role of coins in his life and cult: coins for the payment of his killers (as we know from a wit- ness); then, as a saint, coins offered at his tomb and for the execution of the ark in Saint Eustorgio, and finally his iconography on coins and medals. I conclude with a note on the two panels of the ark that depict the body of the saint exposed, with considerations on the detachment of the head from the body as a crucial moment in the creation of the cult.