Joseph Brettauer

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Joseph Brettauer (born December 8, 1835 in Ancona , † July 11, 1905 in Trieste , Austria-Hungary ) was an Austrian physician and coin collector .

Brettauer as a medic

Joseph Brettauer studied medicine at the University of Prague and Vienna , where he received his doctorate in 1859 . At the General Hospital in Vienna, he trained as a specialist in ophthalmology with Carl Ferdinand von Arlt . After he moved to Trieste with his parents in 1861 , he became head of the eye department in the Trieste hospital. He held this position until his retirement in 1904. In medical circles he was regarded as a good diagnostician and skilled surgeon well into old age. However, there are hardly any scientific publications.

Brettauer as a numismatist

He remained a bachelor all his life. In addition to his medical work, he was an avid collector of coins , medals and other numismatic objects. He invested considerable financial resources and brought about two huge collections of coins, medals, etc.: one with objects related to the city of Trieste and the MEDICINA in NUMMIS. This collection (with 5557 catalog numbers) documents medical, hygienic, popular welfare, hunger and plague, important people, institutions, inventions and baths, disasters and anti-alcoholic movements, awards and honors from all over Europe. The collection begins with Greek coins from the 5th century BC and extends to the beginning of the 20th century.

In addition to the more than 7,000 coins, medals, etc. that he owned at the time of his death, he also had specialist knowledge in this area, so that he was one of the most important numismatists of the 19th century.

After his death

Brettauer bequeathed the entire “Medicinia in Nummis” part of the collection with an additional donation of 10,000 crowns to the University of Vienna, with the condition that the collection be cataloged and made available for study purposes. Since this was not possible for the university, the collection was moved to the Münzkabinett in the Kunsthistorisches Museum . Because of the financial difficulties (inflation in the First Republic ), the collection catalog was not published until 1937, which was published in 1989 in a reprint as volume 28 of the publications of the Numismatic Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences .

Independently of this, the University of Vienna had the oldest numismatics chair in the world since 1774. But this was orphaned since 1863. After the chair was reactivated in 1965, the “Medicina in Nummis” collection could be brought back to the university. Since 1988, the Brettauersammlung has been kept, looked after, used in lessons and partially exhibited at the Institute for Numismatics and Monetary History of the University of Vienna (in the building of the former University of World Trade).

He bequeathed his collection of coins relating to Trieste to the Trieste City Museum.

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personal data
SURNAME Brettauer, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian physician and numismatist
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Ancona
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1905
Place of death Trieste