The Unholy Relationship Between a Numismatic Scholar and a Wheeler Dealer: Joseph Eckhel, Pieter van Damme and the Peculiar 'Recueil des médailles des Rois'

The article provides a detailed analysis of Joseph Eckhel's contacts with the Dutch collector and dealer in coins and rare books, Pieter van Damme. It also contains the first ever bibliographic analysis of the infamous "Recueil des medailles des Rois, du Cabinet de Mr. P. van Damme", of which he purportedly had only twelve copies produced. While van Damme claimed this book to be a publication of his collection of coins of Greek (mostly Hellenistic) kings, it is in fact a concoction mostly of plates from a never-published book on the subject by the Dutch classicist Sigebert Havercamp. The contribution also contains various appendices on van Damme’s portrait, his memberships in learned societies, and his (few) real publications.