His father was farm-steward to Count Zinzendorf, and he received his early education at the Jesuits' College, Vienna, where at the age of fourteen he was admitted into the
order. He devoted himself to antiquities and
numismatics. After being engaged as professor of poetry and
rhetoric, first at
Steyr and afterwards at
Vienna, he was appointed in 1772 keeper of the cabinet of coins at the Jesuits' College, and in the same year he went to
Italy for the purpose of personal inspection and study of antiquities and coins. At
Florence 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 his Numi veteres anecdoti, published in 1775.
On the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, Eckhel was appointed by the empress
Maria Theresa of Austria professor of antiquities and numismatics at the
University 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 his Catalogus Vindobonensis numorum veterum.
Eckhel's main work is the Doctrina numorum veterum, in 8 vols, the first of which was published in 1792, and the last in 1798.
The author's rich learning, comprehensive grasp of his subject, admirable order and precision of statement in this masterpiece drew from
C. G. Heyne enthusiastic praise, and the acknowledgment that Eckhel, as the
Coryphaeus of numismatists, had, out of the mass of previously loose and confused facts, constituted a true science.
A volume of Addenda, prepared by
Steinbuchel from Eckhel's papers after his death, was published in 1826.
Works
Among his other works are:
Choix de pierres gravées du Cabinet Imperial des Antiques (1788)
A school-book on coins entitled Kurzgefasste 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 Access
urn: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 Access
urn: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 Access
urn: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 Access
urn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-339013);
Part 2: De Moneta Romanorum. Vol. 5: Continens Numos Consulares et Familiarum subiectis Indicibus. Camesina, Wien 1795 (Open Access
urn: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 Access
urn: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 Access
urn: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 Access
urn: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.641-663
Online
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