Joseph Hilarius Eckhel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Hilarius Eckhel
Joseph Hilarius Eckhel, wood engraving by Samuel Williams on the title page of the first edition of The Numismatic Journal , 1837

Johann Joseph Hilarius von Eckhel (born January 13, 1737 in Enzesfeld , Lower Austria , † May 16, 1798 in Vienna ) was an Austrian Jesuit and numismatist .

life and work

Eckhel was a son of Johann Anton Eckhel, an administrator of the princely Montecuccolischen estates. Eckhel spent his school days at a Latin school run by Jesuits . After the obligatory novitiate he joined the Societas Jesu on October 20, 1751 at St. Anna in Vienna . After his ordination, he could at September 24, 1764 then in the parish church of Maria Hietzing his first Mass celebrated.

Following this, Eckhel worked as a lecturer at schools in Leoben , Steyr and Vienna. There he became a teacher of eloquence at the Jesuit college and began to be interested in numismatics , guided by his religious brother Josef Khell (1714–1772) . Together with Khell he described and inventoried the Granelli Collection and in 1769 was commissioned to process the donation from the Hungarian Count Mihály Viczay (1727–1781). In 1771 Eckhel was working on the coin collection of Paul Festetics (1725–1782) with almost sole responsibility .

Ailing for a long time, Eckhel was no longer able to teach from 1772 and from that time devoted himself exclusively to numismatics. With the permission of his order, Eckhel went to Bologna , Rome and Florence at the end of August 1772 to continue studying there. Raimondo Cocchi (1735–1775) related himself to Eckhel and so he was commissioned by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Peter Leopold , to view and process the coin and medal collection .

When Eckhel returned to Vienna in 1774, his order had been canceled for a year. The following year, Empress Maria Theresa appointed him to succeed Erasmus Fröhlich and Josef Khell as curator of ancient coins in the imperial coin cabinet . There he worked under the direction of Valentin Jamerai Duval and when he died in 1776 he was appointed sole director of this coin collection .

At the same time, Eckhel had already accepted a call to the University of Vienna in 1775 and taught there as a professor of antiquities and historical aids . Eckhel died on May 16, 1798 in Vienna, where he found his final resting place.

reception

Eckhel is considered to be the founder of numismatics as a science . With his main work "Doctrina numorum veterum" (8 vols.) He developed a system that placed the amateur collecting of coins on a sound scientific basis. Anton von Steinbüchel (1790–1883) published a supplement from Eckhel's estate in 1826 (“Addenda ad Eckhelii Doctrinam numorum veterum ex eiusdem autographo postumo”).

Honors

Michael Denis wrote the distich in honor of Eckhel :

Eckhelium brevis hora tulit, sed diva Moneta
Scripta viri secum vivere secla jubet .

On the occasion of Eckhel's 100th birthday, Luigi Manfredini (1771–1840) created a medal in 1837 with the inscription SYSTEMATIS. REI. NVMARIAE. ANTIQUAE. CONDITORI. Two further medals appeared without a year after a model by Johann Daniel Böhm as iron casting (73 mm, by the Royal Prussian Iron Foundry Berlin) and in 1880 by Anton Scharff (bronze, 35 mm)

In 1872 the Eckhelgasse in Vienna- Favoriten (10th district) was named after him.

Publications (selection)

  • Numi Veteres Anecdoti. 2 volumes. Kurzböck, Vienna 1775, (digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 ).
  • Catalogus Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis Numorum Veterum. 2 volumes. Kraus, Vienna 1779, (digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 ).
  • Sylloge I. Numorum Veterum Anecdotorum Thesauri Caesarei. Trattner, Vienna 1786, ( digitized ).
  • Descriptio Numorum Antiochiae Syriae. Trattner, Vienna 1786, ( digitized version ).
  • Brief beginnings of ancient numismatics. Kurzbek, Vienna 1787, ( digitized version ).
  • Choix des Pierres Gravées du Cabinet Impérial des Antiques. Kurzbek, Vienna 1788, ( digitized version ).
  • Doctrina Numorum Veterum. 8 volumes. Degen et al., Vienna 1792–1798;
    • Part 1: De Numis Urbium, Populorum, Regum. Volume 1: Continens Prolegomena Generalia, tum Numos Hispaniae, Galliae, Britanniae, Germaniae, Italiae, cum Insulis. Degen, Vienna 1792;
    • Part 1: De Numis Urbium, Populorum, Regum. Volume 2: Reliquas Europae Regiones cum Parte Asiae Minoris. Degen, Vienna 1792;
    • Part 1: De Numis Urbium, Populorum, Regum. Volume 3: Reliquam Asiam Minorem, et Regiones deinceps in Ortum sitas. Degen, Vienna 1794;
    • Part 1: De Numis Urbium, Populorum, Regum. Volume 4: Continens Aegyptum, et Regiones Africae deinceps in occasum sitas. Observata Generalia ad partem I. Huius Operis, et Indices in Partem I. Camesina, Vienna 1794;
    • Part 2: De Moneta Romanorum. Volume 5: Continens Numos Consulares et Familiarum subiectis Indicibus. Camesina, Vienna 1795;
    • Part 2: De Moneta Romanorum. Volume 6: Continens Numos Imperatorios a Iulio Caesare usque ad Hadrianum eiusque Familiam. Camesina, Vienna 1796;
    • Part 2: De Moneta Romanorum. Volume 7: Continens Numos Imperatorios from Antonio Pio usque ad Imperium Diocletiani. Camesina, Vienna 1797;
    • Part 2: De Moneta Romanorum. Volume 8: Continens Numos Imperatorios, qui supersunt, pseudomonetam, Observata Generalia in Partem II et Indices in Volumina VI VII VIII. Camesina, Vienna 1798.

literature

  • Joseph Bergmann : Maintenance of Numismatics in Austria in the XVIII. Century with particular reference to the Imperial and Royal Coin and Medal Cabinet. With explanatory notes. II. Division. From Eckhel to his death. (1774-1798). In: Meeting reports of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-historical class. Vol. 24, 1857, pp. 296-364 .
  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Eckhel, Johann Joseph Hilarius . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 3rd part. Typogr.-literar.-artist publishing house. Establishment (L. C. Zamarski, C. Dittmarsch & Comp.), Vienna 1858, pp. 423-426 ( digitized version ).
  • Friedrich Kenner : Joseph Hilarius von Eckhel. A lecture given at the festive annual meeting of the Numismatic Society in Vienna on January 13, 1871. Verlag der Numismatic Society, Vienna 1871, ( digitized version ).
  • Friedrich Kenner:  Eckhel, Joseph Hilarius von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 633-635.
  • Peter Robert Franke :  Eckhel, Joseph Hilarius von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 302 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Daniela Williams, Bernhard Woytek : The scholarly correspondence of Joseph Eckhel (1737–1798): a new source for the history of numismatics. In: Contributions to the 6th Austrian Numismatics Day. Hall in Tirol, 14.-16. May 2014 (= Haller Münz-Blätter. Vol. 8). Tyrolean Numismatic Society, Hall in Tirol 2015, pp. 45–56 .
  • Daniela Williams, Bernhard Woytek: Zoëga studente di numismatica. Il soggiorno a Vienna (1782) ei contatti con Joseph Eckhel. In: Karen Ascani, Paola Buzi, Daniela Picchi (eds.): The Forgotten Scholar: Georg Zoëga (1755‒1809). At the Dawn of Egyptology and Coptic Studies (= Culture and History of the Ancient Near East. 74). Brill, Leiden et al. 2015, ISBN 978-90-04-29023-5 , pp. 101-110 .
  • Daniela Williams: Gaetano Marini e Joseph Eckhel tra numismatica ed epigrafia. In: Marco Buonocore (ed.): Gaetano Marini (1742–1815) protagonista della cultura europea. Scritti per il bicentenario della morte (= Studi e Testi. 492). Volume 1. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 2015, ISBN 978-88-210-0930-3 , pp. 785-796 .
  • Daniela Williams: Reflections on the history of numismatic research: exploring the life and work of Joseph Eckhel (1737–1798) through the lens of FINA (Fontes Inediti Numismaticae Antiquae). In: International Numismatic Council. Compte Rendu. Vol. 62, 2015, pp. 73-78 .
  • Daniela Williams: Joseph Eckhel and his correspondents from Sicily and the south of Italy: the Prince of Torremuzza (Palermo) and Michele Vargas Macciucca (Naples). In: Maria Caccamo Caltabiano, Benedetto Carroccio, Daniele Castrizio, Mariangela Puglisi, Grazia Salamone (eds.): XV International Numismatic Congress. Taormina 2015. Proceedings. Volume 1. Arbor Sapientiae, Rome et al. 2017, ISBN 978-88-94820-31-7 , pp. 291-295 .
  • Daniela Williams: Charlotte Sophie Bentinck, Joseph Eckhel and numismatics. In: Virtus. Journal of Nobility Studies. Vol. 25, 2018, pp. 127–143 .
  • Daniela Williams: Joseph Eckhel (1737–1798) and the coin collection of Queen Christina of Sweden in Rome. In: Journal of the History of Collections. Vol. 31, 2019, doi : 10.1093 / jhc / fhz019 / 5510714 .

Web links

Commons : Joseph Hilarius Eckhel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Only this volume appeared. See: Michael O. Krieg: No more was published. A directory of unfinished printed works (= Bibliotheca bibliographica. Volume 2, 1). Volume 1: A-L. Krieg, Vienna 1954, p. 198.
personal data
SURNAME Eckhel, Joseph Hilarius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eckhel, Joseph Hilarius von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian numismatist and Jesuit
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1737
PLACE OF BIRTH Enzesfeld , Lower Austria
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1798
Place of death Vienna