We Know That

e know that linked to one another earlier cultures through either visible such as the or invisible similarities. WBabylonian (2200 BC People believed that by - 538 BC), the Ancient detecting those visible Greek (1600 BC - 197 and invisible signs and BC) and the Roman by recognizing the (396 BC - 410 AD) all similarities between had collections, which objects, they would almost certainly had be brought to an economic, religious, understanding of how magical, historic, the world functioned, aesthetic or personal and what humanity’s connotations for the place in it was. owners. However, it wasn’t until the The wunderkammer Renaissance (literally collections were meaning rebirth) of displayed in multi- art and literature in compartmented fourteenth-century cabinets and vitrines, that there consistently (which later in the appeared collections Renaissance grew to which were preserved be entire rooms), and and interpreted ñ the were arranged so as modern definition of to inspire wonder what a museum is. and stimulate creative thought. Exotic natural These collections were objects, art, treasures created as a result of a and diverse items of growing desire among clothing or tools from the peoples of Europe distant lands and to place mankind cultures were all sought accurately within the for the wunderkammer. grand scheme of Particularly highly nature and the divine. prized were unusual This need developed and rare items which crossed or blurred the during the fourteenth (treasure cabinets), were compiled by lines between animal, century and continued r¸stkammer (history a single person, vegetable and mineral. into the seventeenth cabinets), and finally normally a scholar or Examples of these were century (the period wunderkammer nobleman, for study corals and fossils and of the Renaissance). (marvel or curiosity and/or entertainment. above all else objects These collections cabinets). Within the The Renaissance such as narwhal tusks were generally time period that these wunderkammer, like known as cabinets, or cabinets were created the modern museum, curiosity cabinets, in especially during were subject to England and France, the Renaissance the preservation and ‘Within the time period that these and in the German terms wunderkammer interpretation. However, speaking countries or curiosity cabinet they differed from the cabinets were created especially they were called became the generic modern museum in kammer or kabinette. terms for them. some fundamental during the Renaissance the terms Greater precision was aspects of purpose and sometimes applied to Wunderkammer or meaning. Renaissance wunderkammer or curiosity the description of the curiosity cabinets were wunderkammer were collections in these collections of rare, private spaces, created cabinet became the generic terms cabinets, so there valuable, historically and formed around were kunstkammer (art important or unusual a deeply held belief cabinets), schatzkammer objects, which generally that all things were for them.’ which were thought to are: the cabinet of the of sixpence (unlike the and the conveniences centres and library at the be the horns of unicorns London apothecary vast majority of other thereof”. The Ashmolean Tate galleries help art and were considered to James Petiver (c.1663- wunderkammer, which museum is the oldest scholars and researchers be magical. 1718) which was bought were kept private) in the public museum, and today. The scholarly and by Sir Hans Sloane, Tradescant’s home in the first purpose built educational aims that As time passed and the and became the basis Lambeth. This collection museum in the world. were Elias Ashmoleís wunderkammer evolved of the British Museum. had been recognised for However, it was not its founding objectives for and grew in importance, The great natural it variety and even utility originality that brought the museum are still the small private history cabinets of while controlled by the recognition of its driving forces behind its cabinets - which nearly Fredric Ruysch (1638- Tradescants, but it was utility. A collection of work. ‘The scholarly and educational all wunderkammer 1731) and Albert Seba under the ownership of curiosities had been had begun as, were (1665-1736), both of Elias Ashmole (1617- a part of Oxford’s The period from the late aims that were Elias Ashmoleís absorbed into larger which were bought by 1692) who inherited it Bodlean Library almost seventeenth to the early ones. In turn these larger Tsar Peter the Great by deed of gift through from its start. What eighteenth century saw founding objectives for the cabinets were bought by of Russia (1672-1725), inheritance from was almost certainly the decline and death gentlemen, noblemen and can still be viewed John Tredescant the responsible for the of the Renaissance museum are still driving forces and finally royalty for in the kunstkammer younger in 1659, that Ashmolean Museum’s and the beginning of their amusement and gallery in St. Petersburg the collection’s scientific intellectual success was the classical age, the behind its work.’ edification and merged (Leningrad). And usefulness was finally its laboratory and lecture Age of Reason. During into cabinets so large finally the Ark, the and fully acknowledged. hall, housed respectively this period the beliefs that they took over Wunderkammer of on the ground and first of the Renaissance entire rooms. After a John Tradescant Senior Elias Ashmole donated floors of the original were challenged time, these noble and (c.1570-1638), and the collection to Oxford Ashmolean Museum and overturned, and royal collections were John Tredescant the University in 1677. He building. These facilities new ways of viewing institutionalised and younger (1608-1662). did this in the belief helped enable scientific and understanding turned into public This large and varied that the study of nature research and discovery, the world were museums. A very few collection was open to was very necessaries to in much the same introduced. However, examples of this process the public for payment “humaine life, health, way that the research the Renaissance approach to collection and display did not die out completely at the end of the seventeenth century but continued in pockets, which survive in various forms even today. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford is an excellent example of a modern curiosity cabinet with modern collection methods, meanings and purposes. .

Load more