Отто Фердинандович Ретовский: коллекционер, музейщик, ученый

Abstract

Otto Retovsky was one of those ethnic Germans who has become a citizen of Russia and has left a trace in Russian science. Since 1875, Retovsky has lived and worked in Crimea, devoting free time to studying of the nature and the monuments of archaeology of the Crimea, mainly coins, and collecting entomological and numismatic items. In 1900, Retovsky became the keeper of the numismatic department of the Hermitage Museum. His museum work was engaged mainly in the West European coins and medals, but he had not left any writing on this topic. On the contrary, systematizing a collection of the Byzantine coins, Retovsky allocated the coins of Trebizond that induced him to writing of scientific work, still not has lost their value. His scientific interests were devoted also to the coinage of Crimean Gireis and the Genoese-Tatar coins minted in the city of Caffa. All his researches based on his own collections. The most of them joined the Hermitage collection. Since 1908, Retovsky has employed for studying the coins of the Greek colonies on the northern coast of the Black Sea. In 1918, Retovsky with the collaboration of M. Rostovtsev prepared for the publication the coins of tsars of Bosporus, but the book not issued.