Union Académique Internationale

The UAI is pleased to announce the publication of a new volume as part of the Fontes Inediti Numismaticae Antiquae - FINA project.

This richly illustrated volume explores the life and work of the Austrian classical scholar Joseph Eckhel, who played a crucial role in the transformation of numismatics into a modern research discipline. Although Eckhel has been widely hailed as the "father of numismatics" since the 19th century, this is the first scholarly book on him. It contains 21 essays by an international group of specialists who illuminate various aspects of his biography and research activities in an interdisciplinary dialogue: Eckhel's Jesuit roots, his important research trip to Italy in 1773, his work as Director of the Imperial Collection of Ancient Coins and Professor of Numismatics at the University of Vienna (from 1774), and especially his most important works on ancient coins as well as gems and cameos, among which Eckhel's eight-volume "Doctrina numorum veterum" (Vienna, 1792-1798) enjoys specific attention as his main numismatic work. The new anthology is also dedicated to Eckhel's impact on his contemporaries and later generations, with particular attention to his position in the history of numismatic methods in the Age of Enlightenment and beyond.

This volume is available online on the website of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.