Joseph Eckhel (1737‒1798) and his numismatic network

Joseph Eckhel (1737‒1798) and his numismatic network

This research project on the life and work of the Austrian numismatist Joseph Eckhel (1737‒1798) is based at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna) and directed by Bernhard Woytek. Eckhel’s scholarly correspondence is currently being edited for the first time, with a detailed numismatic and historical commentary.

Joseph Eckhel, director of the Cabinet of Ancient Coins of the Imperial collections and professor of Classics at the University of Vienna, is one of the founding fathers of numismatic science. His main work, the Doctrina numorum veterum (8 vols, Vienna 1792‒1798), revolutionised research on ancient coins in a methodological perspective. Some of its parts have never been superseded and still remain of value to today’s scholars.

Eckhel’s correspondence

The archives of the Coin Cabinet of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna hold a most important group of 162 unpublished scholarly letters addressed to Eckhel by 38 numismatists and classicists from all over Europe. These documents were chosen as core material for a research project on Eckhel’s correspondence, which was launched in 2013. It is directed by Bernhard Woytek and was funded for three years by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF: project no. P25282).

The search for letters pertaining to Eckhel’s correspondence in foreign archives, which was performed in the course of the project, proved very fruitful, adding another 91 letters. This additional material complements some of the letters in the Vienna archive; in some cases it represents Eckhel’s active correspondence, a first-hand source for the scholar’s thought, and completes the epistolary sequence of some of his correspondences. Importantly, the material also adds to our knowledge about Eckhel’s contacts with correspondents not represented in the archive of the Vienna coin cabinet: in this way, 7 new correspondents can be linked to his network.

The letters provide insight into the genesis of all of Eckhel’s publications and into the development of some of his ideas, in contact with colleagues from all over Europe. They allow us to follow his activities as a curator and scholar, not without the occasional glimpse of his private life. Taken together, the letters are a unique, completely untapped source for the development of numismatics in the Age of Enlightenment.

All in all, the project now comprises 253 letters, written in 5 different languages (French, Italian, Latin, German and Dutch) between 1773 and 1798. A numismatic and historical commentary is being prepared for each letter. A list of all the coins, inscriptions and archaeological artifacts mentioned or discussed in the letters will be available: each item is being catalogued according to modern references. A general index of people, places and early modern books mentioned in the letters will provide an additional tool for the reader.

The digital edition

In addition to the print edition, a digital edition of the letter corpus is being prepared in close cooperation with the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities (ACDH), which provides technological expertise and infrastructure for creating a valuable resource for interdisciplinary research in itself. In particular, the digital edition will allow connecting the project’s findings to current international research initiatives on epistolary communication, hence significantly expanding the project’s context both in terms of primary data, interdisciplinary reusability and visibility by exploiting the methodological inventory of up-to-date digital humanities.

For further information:

Project leader

PD Dr. Bernhard Woytek

Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture
Documenta Antiqua
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Hollandstrasse 11-13
1020 Vienna ‒ Austria
bernhard.woytek@oeaw.ac.at

Project associate

Dr. Daniela Williams

Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture
Documenta Antiqua
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Hollandstrasse 11-13
1020 Vienna ‒ Austria
daniela.williams@oeaw.ac.at