Schmitz-Esser abstract 2007
Romedio Schmitz-Esser, Stadthistoriker der Stard Hall in Tirol
*The cooperation between Hall in Tyrol and Segovia. The revival of two historic mints and its museological use*
Since 2003, a reconstructed Cylindrical Stamping Press became one of the most important objects within the collection of the mint museum at Hall in Tyrol. Alongside with the mint tower, the impressive machine is the crowd puller of this museum of monetary history and minting technology. The reconstruction of this press is the result of interdisciplinary cooperation. It was planned and performed with collaboration of several experts from the fields of numismatic, minting history, hydraulics, turnery and didactics. Therefore, the mint museum at Hall is not only dealing with the questions of presenting and preserving its collection, but is active in experimental numismatics and encouraging historic research as well.
The research in the field of the history of minting technologies at Hall uncovered the close connection between Tyrol and Habsburgian Spain in the 16th century. The new technology of the Cylindrical Stamping Press was exported to the royal Spanish mint at Segovia; Tyrolean know-how and manpower was transferred to the far away Iberian peninsula. Therefore, the project got a European dimension and first steps were undertaken by the mint museum at Hall to collaborate with the city of Segovia. The endeavour to reactivate the old mint at Segovia and the scientific cooperation in the field of history (namely between the Austrian Historic Institute at Madrid and the Civic Archive of Hall) led to a cooperation in the fields of historic research and, as a next step, museology.
Focussing on the cooperation of Hall and Segovia, this paper discusses the possible use of historic research for the museum’s management: Opening new perspectives for networking and international cooperation, transferring know-how from one institution to another and enhancing the medial presence of the museum.
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