Collectors and Curiosities

This outstanding and highly original study examines the history of collecting in early modern Europe, and describes the myriad treasures, from paintings and antiques to religious relics, that found their way into the private collections and public museums of the time. The author looks at the types of people who formed collections, from the harmless eccentrics to the wily speculators, and examines what they collected and why. He develops a historical anthropology of collecting and sheds new light upon the genesis of the modern museum. Pomian charts the changes in fashion which characterised the world of collecting, arguing that such shifts can be seen as a sign of wider and more profound changes in mentality and can be analysed in terms of a conflict between aesthetic and historical sensibilities.