Ars critica numaria.

Ancient coins have been collected and studied extensively since the Renaissance. By the later 16th century, voluminous catalogue works on Greek and Roman coins were published: traditionally, Roman imperial and provincial coinages were at the centre of attention, in view of the impressive series of portraits of the emperors and their families. By the second half of the 17th century, the importance of numismatics as a source discipline of history was explored more systematically. As for many other fields, the Age of Enlightenment was a watershed for numismatics, too: through the publication of many large coin collections, the number of known ancient coin types rose drastically, which in turn led to a spectacular increase in detailed knowledge on the coin production of several mints of the Greek world, and the coinages of some dynasties. Still, a commonly accepted method of systematising the huge quantity of highly diverse ancient coins in the drawers of cabinets and in the corresponding catalogues was lacking. Fantasy types created in the Renaissance had not yet been eliminated completely from scholarly literature, and no reference work summing up the contemporary knowledge of ancient coinage existed. These fundamental problems were solved by the Austrian numismatist Joseph Eckhel (1737 1798). On the basis of works by Joseph Pellerin (16841783), Eckhel created the so-called Systema Eckhelianum, in use for ordering Greek and Roman coins to the present day: he systematised non-Roman coins geographically mint by mint, clockwise around the Mediterranean; the Roman imperial issues were classified in strictly chronological order, without taking the metals into account, which had played a key role in many previous classification systems. Eckhels eight-volume Doctrina numorum veterum (Vienna, 1792 1798) provided a masterly overview on the whole of ancient coinage, on the then-current state of research, which Eckhel himself had shaped to a large extent. His Doctrina was regarded as the most important reference work on ancient numismatics until well into the 20th century, and some parts retain practical value to date. Despite Eckhels importance, his life and work have not been studied in detail so far. Hence, the present collected volume closes a gap. It was conceived in the framework of a project dedicated to the edition of Eckhels scholarly correspondence and brings together an interdisciplinary group of contributors: historians, numismatists and historians of science. Their 21 articles, most of them richly illustrated, explore Eckhels activity as director of the imperial collection of ancient coins and professor of numismatics at the university of Vienna (from 1774) and analyse his most important publications on ancient coins as well as on gems and cameos. Furthermore, they consider the impact of Eckhels work on contemporaries and later generations, with special regard to his role in the development of numismatic methodology.