Eckhel was born atEnzersfeld, inLower Austria. His father was farm-steward to Count Zinzendorf, and he received his early education at the Jesuit College in Vienna, where, at the age of fourteen, he was admitted into thatorder. He devoted himself to antiquities andnumismatics. After being engaged as professor of poetry andrhetoric, first atSteyr and afterwards atVienna, he was appointed in 1772 as keeper of the cabinet of coins at the Jesuits' College, and in the same year he went toItaly for the purpose of personal inspection and study of antiquities and coins.[1]
AtFlorence, he was employed to arrange the collection of the grand duke of Tuscany; and the first-fruits of his study of this and other collections appeared in hisNumi veteres anecdoti, published in 1775. Upon the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, Eckhel was appointed by the empressMaria Theresa of Austria professor of antiquities and numismatics at theUniversity of Vienna, and this post he held for twenty-four years. He was in the following year made keeper of the imperial cabinet of coins, and in 1779 appeared hisCatalogus Vindobonensis numorum veterum. His main work is theDoctrina numorum veterum, in 8 vols, the first of which was published in 1792, and the last in 1798.[2]
The author's rich learning, comprehensive grasp of his subject, admirable order and precision of statement in this masterpiece drew fromC. G. Heyne enthusiastic praise, and the acknowledgment that Eckhel, as theCoryphaeus of numismatists, had, out of the mass of previously loose and confused facts, constituted a true science.[3]
A volume ofAddenda, prepared bySteinbuchel from Eckhel's papers after his death, was published in 1826.[3]
Choix de pierres gravées du Cabinet Imperial des Antiques (1788)
A school-book on coins entitledKurzgefasste Anfangsgrunde zur alten Numismatik (1787)
Doctrina Numorum Veterum. 8 vols. Degen et al., Vienna 1792–1798;
Part 1:De Numis Urbium, Populorum, Regum. Vol. 1:Continens Prolegomena Generalia, tum Numos Hispaniae, Galliae, Britanniae, Germaniae, Italiae, cum Insulis. Degen, Wien 1792 (Open Accessurn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339075);
Part 1:De Numis Urbium, Populorum, Regum. Vol. 2:Reliquas Europae Regiones cum Parte Asiae Minoris. Degen, Wien 1792 (Open Accessurn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339018);
Part 1:De Numis Urbium, Populorum, Regum. Vol. 3:Reliquam Asiam Minorem, et Regiones deinceps in Ortum sitas. Degen, Wien 1794 (Open Accessurn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339342);
Part 1:De Numis Urbium, Populorum, Regum. Vol. 4:Continens Aegyptum, et Regiones Africae deinceps in occasum sitas. Observata Generalia ad partem I. huius Operis, et Indices in Partem I. Camesina, Wien 1794 (Open Accessurn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339013);
Part 2:De Moneta Romanorum. Vol. 5:Continens Numos Consulares et Familiarum subiectis Indicibus. Camesina, Wien 1795 (Open Accessurn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339004);
Part 2:De Moneta Romanorum. Vol. 6:Continens Numos Imperatorios a Iulio Caesare usque ad Hadrianum eiusque Familiam. Camesina, Wien 1796 (Open Accessurn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339040);
Part 2:De Moneta Romanorum. Vol. 7:Continens Numos Imperatorios ab Antonio Pio usque ad Imperium Diocletiani. Camesina, Wien 1797 (Open Accessurn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339054);
Part 2:De Moneta Romanorum. Vol. 8:Continens Numos Imperatorios, qui supersunt, pseudomonetam, Observata Generalia in Partem II et Indices in Volumina VI VII VIII. Camesina, Wien 1798 (Open Accessurn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339044).
Daniela Williams, "Gaetano Marini e Joseph Eckhel tra numismatica ed epigrafia", in M. Buonocore (ed.) Gaetano Marini (1742-1815) protagonista della cultura europea. Scritti per il bicentenario della morte, (Studi e Testi 492-493) Città del Vaticano 2015, pp. 785–796.
Bernhard Woytek, Systems, Coin Hoards, Dies and Provenances: Eckhel and the Evolution of Numismatic Method, in:Bernhard Woytek, Daniela Williams (eds): Ars critica numaria. Joseph Eckhel (1737–1798) and the Transformation of Ancient Numismatics, Vienna 2022, pp. 641–663Online
Bernhard Woytek, Daniela Williams (eds): Ars critica numaria. Joseph Eckhel (1737–1798) and the Transformation of Ancient Numismatics (= Denkschriften der phil.-hist. Klasse der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, vol. 541). Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna 2022, ISBN 978-3-7001-8774-5.Online
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Eckhel, Joseph Hilarius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 886–887.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Joseph Hilarius Eckhel".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
