ECEHEL
275
ECKHEL
^ ICCKHE
in 1751 was admitted into the Society of Jesus, and
thirteen years later was ordained priest. He had
studied liumanities in Leoben and philosophy in Graz,
besides mathematics, Greek, and Hebrew. The first
fruit of his literary labours, produced in his twenty-
first year, was an " Exercitium grammaticum in
prophetiam Obadire". This he published as an ap-
pendix to the " Institutiones linguae sacrse " of P. J.
Engstler. After his ordination, and probably for some
time before, he was professor at the Jesuit gymnasia
at Leoben and Steyer; probably also at Judenburg,
and finally at the college of Vienna, where he taught
poetry and rhetoric, and acquired a mastery of Latin,
which he handled with ease and elegance. We still pos-
sess two rather comprehensive odes from his pen,
"Plausus Urbis" and "Plausus Ruris". He left, be-
sides, two German poems written for special occasions,
in the style of that period, and a speech of the same
nature delivered on the occasion of the journey of
Emperor Joseph II to Italy.
How he became a numismatist, Eekhel himself has told us in the preface to his " Numi veteres anecdoti ". Whilst teaching at the Academic Gymnasium he became interested in its cabinet of coins, which «:is under the supervi- sion of his fellow-Jesuit, P. Khell. ThecoUection, containing principally Greek coins, had attain- ed considerable size, through the exertions of the learned Erasmus Frohlich, who had edited a catalogue of most of the ancient coins; Eek- hel set to work selecting the coins which were as yet un- known and unedited, and added thereto the unedited coins of the choice collections of Count Michael Viczay and Paul Festetics. Forced by ill-health to abandon teaching, he devoted himself entirely to numismatics and archaeology. With the permission of hissuperior he went to Italy in 1772 for his further education. In Bo- logna and Rome he studied all the accessible coin collec- tions, but found his richest treasures in Florence. Rai- mundo Cocclii, prefect of the Archducal Museum, re- ceived himmostcordiallyand obtained for him the com- mission to arrange the coins which had been collected by Cardinal Leopoldode' Medici, and which had afterwards been very considerably increased. Cocchi, who died shortly after this, recommended Eekhel to the Arch- duke Peter Leopold, who in turn introduced him to his mother, the Empress Maria Theresa. Meanwhile (1773) the Society of Jesus was suppressed, and Eekhel, like his brethren, was secularized. Returning to Vienna through the South of France in January, 1774, he was delighted to be entrusted by the empress with the task of transferring the collection which belonged to the university college of the Jesuits, to the court cabinet, where, however, it received a separate place. In March of the same year, having acquired an excel- lent reputation as a numismatist, he was named director of the cabinet of ancient coins, with Duval as hissupe- rior. After the latter's death (1775) he received sole charge. Eekhel was commissioned to deliver bi-weekly lectures on numismatics in the coin cabinet. In the fall of 1775 he was promoted to the chair of antiquities and of the historical auxiliary sciences in the univer- sity. In the same year his first numismatic publica- tion appeared.
J. von Bergmann writes of Eckhel's official work: " Eekhel, as is everywhere evident, was an expert ad- ministrator of the treasure committed to his charge. Without much ado, without ostentation, he wrote only what was needful and regarded merely that which was essential. Besides his very simple accounts
and some reports written during the twenty-four years
of his incumbency, only a very few documents concern-
ing the collection of antique coins are in existence.
He enriched the cabinet without advertising it." He
obtained the means for these acquisitions from the
proceeds of the sale of duplicates of gold and silver
coins. The duplication of examples resulted from the
amalgamation of the collection of Francis I with that
of the imperial family. Moreover, the series of the
Persian and Parthian kings were transferred from the
Oriental to the ancient department. The collection of
Duke Charles of Lorraine, that of the Count of Ariosti,
and a selection of coins from the collections of sup-
pressed monasteries were added. By means of em-
bassies and lucky finds the coin cabinet acquired
important additions (e. g. those of Osztropataka and
Szilagy-Somlyo). As a professor in the university
Eekhel lectured on ancient numismatics. His de-
livery is ilescribed as being simple, clear, instruc-
tive, inspiring, and often abounding in humour.
He was highly respected by his pupils. That he also
enjoyed high repute among his colleagues is attested
by his appointment as dean of the philosophical fac-
ulty in 17S9. However, he soon resigned this position.
The first numismatic work published by Eekhel was
" Numi veteres anecdoti ex museis Cajsareo Vindobon-
ensi, Florentino Magni Ducis Etrurioe, Granelliano
nunc Caesareo, Vitzaiano, Festeticsiano, Savorgnano
Veneto aliisque" (Vienna, 1775, in two 4to sections
with 17 copperplates). "Catalogus Musei Caesa-
riensis" (Vienna, in two large folio parts with numer-
ous illustrations) followed four years later. Eekhel
had given the collection entrusted to him an entirely
new arrangement, discarding the time-honoured alpha-
betical order, and substituting quite a new system.
He divided ancient numismatics into two depart-
ments: the first contained the coins minted by cities
other than Rome, arranged according to the geograph-
ical situation of the countries as far as this was possi-
ble; the second comprised all the coins of the Roman
Empire. First come the important but crude asses,
then the unclassified pieces with the inscription Roma.
They are followed by those of the various families,
emperors, and empresses, all arranged as far as possi-
ble in chronological order. Those whose date could
not be exactly obtained are placed after each emperor
as unclassified in alphabetical succession. "By this
method", says Eekhel, "the author was enabled to
rectify countless errors which Mezzabarba had forced
upon us in his General Catalogue" (Imperatorum
Romanorum numismata, Milan, 168.3). And to make
these corrections principally led him to prepare this
catalogue for print. In it he gives an account, not on
outside authority, but from personal observation and
after lengthy and painstaking research, of everything
instructive which so numerous a collection presents.
The work was written in Latin and, contrary to the
present ornamental style, in the simplest language".
This catalogue was followed by "Sylloge II, numorum
veterum anecdotorum Thesauri Cssarei" and "De-
scriptio numorum Antiochite" (17S6), then by the
classical work " Doctrina numorum veterum ", in eight
volumes (1792-1798). Friedrich Kenner says of this:
" Misguided dilettantism had produced most mischiev-
ous results in the field of numismatics. Lack of sys-
tem, want of critical judgment, and the disorderly
arrangement of the literature had begotten confusion
and distrust, which prevented numismatics from tak-
ing the place among other sciences to which it was
entitled. With his naturally critical eye, Eekhel mas-
tered all the literature of his subject, eliminated errors
and forgeries with the help of his profound learning,
and then combined the results into an organic whole
in his ' Doctrina numorum veterum '. . . . Eekhel has
become the founder of the scientific numismatics of
classical antiquity and taken his place alongside of his
contemporaries, Heyne and Winckelmann. Numis-
