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E-book Collectio Mineralium : The catalog of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II’s mineralogical collection

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Penilaian

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The royal entourage of the recently crowned Joseph II (1741–1790) was led by his brother Leopold (1747–1792), his future brother-in-law Albert Kasimir of Saxony-Te-schen (1738–1822), and the top officials of the Viennese central administration. This included the Court Chamber of Coinage and Mining (Hofkammer in Münz- und Bergwe-sen), the supreme authority responsible for minting and mining in the Habsburg domin-ions. The two-week journey to Bratislava (Pressburg) and the rather peripherally located mining region in the Western Carpathians, about 200 km east of the capital city and imperial seat, was strictly business, not pleasure for the three Habsburg offspring. The visit of this lucrative industrial area, significant for the economy and financial power of the Habsburg Monarchy, took place at the dedicated request of the ruling couple, Maria Theresia (1717–1780) and Franz Stephan (1708–1765). The journey was to prepare the young men for their further involvement in governmental affairs and their later role as sovereigns. In fact, Joseph II was to inherit the imperial dignity from his father in 1765 and was installed alongside his mother as co-regent in the Habsburg dominions. Leo-pold married that same year with Maria Luisa of Spain (1745–1792), went to Florence as Grand Duke of Tuscany and succeeded his brother as Holy Roman-German Emper-or in 1790 (Wandruszka 1965). At the same time, Albert Kasimir obtained a powerful position as Habsburg Palatin (Stadtholder) in Hungary and got married to Maria Chris-tina (1742–1798), a daughter of Maria Theresa.2 The dense program of the journey en-compassed the inspection of several underground galleries and laboratories, the study of the technical infrastructure, and practical work on-site. During their stay, they were dressed entirely in miner’s habit,3 and the three young noblemen even extracted ore sam-ples from veins using a pickaxe. The historian Peter Kone?ný (2013a, 350–1) has analyzed the political and edu-cational intentions of this journey and those of other Habsburg rulers to the Slovak mining towns in the context of the representational demands of stakeholders such as the Viennese court, the mining administration, and regional estates (Landstände). By “showing personal presence on ground”, representatives of the Habsburg dynasty un-derpinned their direct control of the mining area as a significant source of state income. Thus, claims of the Hungarian Court Chamber and the kingdom’s nobility arising at the Diet (Landtag) of Bratislava were to be fended off. Moreover, during the trip, Jo-seph II and Leopold were introduced to a “practical knowledge culture” complement-ing the education they had received at the Viennese court. The so-called “Golden Mining Book ” (Goldenes Bergbuch 1764), a handwritten description of the Lower Hungarian mining districts containing sketches of mines, smelters, and minting plants, bears witness to the political significance of this knowledge.4 Made for the personal use of Joseph II and Leopold on this special occasion, the “Golden Mining Book ” served to familiarize the two prospective rulers with min-ing, its technologies, and financial benefit in the run-up to the trip and to prepare and follow up the instructions on-site (Vo z á r 2000). In particular, a preserved travel dia-ry of Leopold (1764), in which he excerpted the information provided in the “Golden Mining Book ” and combined it with his observations of mines, machines, tools, and tasks of workers, demonstrates the interdependency of these fields of knowledge with imperial policy (Vozár 1990).

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

016.549 MAT c

Penerbit

Italy : Firenze University Press., 2022

Deskripsi Fisik

285 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9788855184946

Klasifikasi

016.5

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

-

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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