Cabinets of Curiosities

by Patrick Mauriès

Unicorns’ horns, mermaids’ skeletons, stuffed and preserved animals and plants, work in precious metals, clocks, scientific instruments, celestial globes . . . all knowledge, the whole cosmos arranged on shelves. Such were the cabinets of curiosities of the seventeenth century, the last period of history when man could aspire to know everything.Who were the collectors? They were archdukes and kings—the Emperor Rudolf II was the prince of all collectors—rich merchants and scholars, and their collections ranged from a single crowded room to whole palatial suites. Patrick Maurie`s traces the amazing history of these “rooms of wonders” in this ingeniously erudite survey. Not many of the rooms survive, though there are pictorial records, but their contents still exist and are among the treasures of museums all over the world.

Genres: History, Art, Nonfiction, Museums, Natural History, Science, Coffee Table Books

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2002

About the author

Patrick Mauriès is a writer and publisher of many notable titles on fashion and design, including Jewelry by Chanel, A Cabinet of Rarities, The World According to Karl and Fashion Quotes to name a few, all published by Thames & Hudson.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Patrick Mauriès' Cabinets of Curiosities both started and ended for me with shocks of recognition that were only peripherally related to the subject at hand—which is, to be quite clear, the origin, spread, and transformation through time of these so-called Wunderkammern . The very first two names that Mauriès mentions in his Prelude were ones I encountered recently, while reading Iain Sinclair's ode to London, Lights Out for the Territory in December 2019: John Tradescant (the Younger), who published Musaeum Tradescantianum in 1656, and Elias Ashmole, after whom the Ashmolean Museum is named.

And the ending? Well, we'll hold on to that for a bit.

The edition of Cabinets of Curiosities I read is a massive coffee-table book, heavy and beautifully-printed, with numerous full-page illustrations and several foldouts in full color. There is a textbook's worth of prose strewn in and among those pictures, though—this was in fact one of the assigned texts for a class my daughter took at college—and I'll have to admit I plodded through most of that verbiage without pleasure. Even for me—and I'm pretty prolix myself—Mauriès' prose seemed verbose and repetitive; perhaps it's most charitably described as "scholarly."

Apart from a few typos, though, I caught no errors and only one minor ambiguity:

Bezoar was a stone which when hollowed out into a cup was believed to render poisons harmless.
—p.173

This sentence is true enough, but a little misleading as it stands. A bezoar isn't an inorganic stone—it's a gastrointestinal accretion of indigestible material, usually biological in origin (more like a kidney stone than a rock from the ground), and although some bezoars did get big enough to be made into cups, they were more commonly placed into cups as a specific against poisoning. (And, interestingly, it turns out that at least some bezoars can absorb arsenic... But I digress.)

Cabinets of Curiosities is often relatively unkind to its subjects. Even while Mauriès marvels over the cabinets themselves, he follows their creators' contemporaries in referring several times to the sort of man (and it was pretty much always a man) who assembled Wunderkammern as a senex puerilis (Latin for "childish old man").

At one point, Mauriès even comes close to concluding that cabinets of curiosities were just a fad. As the so-called Age of Enlightment blossomed in the 1700s,

There was no place for the inexplicable or the bizarre in a culture that demanded, then as now, a reality that was on the way to being explained, a reality with no parts left over or superfluities; henceforth, a predictable nature would obey the laws of probability, leaving no room for exceptions, just as the 'mediocrity' demanded by society left no room for gratuitous excess ("the metaphysical shift from marvellous to uniform nature paralleled a shift in cultural values from princely magnificence to bourgeois domesticity").
—pp.193-194

But of course interest in Kunstkammern never really died out entirely. The final chapter of Cabinets of Curiosities is entitled "Resurgences," and it contains this passage, which seems a perfect exemplar of Mauriès' style—if you can read this paragraph with joy, then the book as a whole will enrapture you:

'A slight slippage'
One of the consequences of the disappearance of the concept of the work, in the classical sense of the term, from modern and contemporary art has been the acceptance and recognition of realms and endeavours that have hitherto been excluded from the main body of art, or consigned to the fringes of the pathological. 'Natural poetry', dandies dabbling in extravagance and excess, Art Brut or Outsider Art: we are surrounded now by works without artists, or in which the vestiges of a consciousness or an identity have vanished, and artists without works, whose only legacy is their lives, or even some device, place or mere intention. As an accumulation of objects, a theatre of intimacy, a fundamentally eclectic assortment of objects, the cabinet of curiosities belongs as we have seen, under numerous different guises and via a number of essential connections, to the history of modern and contemporary art. But the closing years of the twentieth century witnessed the emergence of a final renaissance, as spectacular as it was unexpected, of the Wunderkammern, in a resurgence that took place, moreover, outside the confines of any cultural establishment, no matter how cutting-edge or controversial. Quite the reverse: a côterie of collectors and cognoscenti now chose, quietly and in private, to adopt the vanished cabinets of curiosities as the décor against which they lived their daily lives, creating spaces saturated with references and allusions, réveries around themes and objects long ago consigned to oblivion, the carefully meditated frameworks of a personal scenography which to the astute observer will appear as so many works without titles, paradoxical testimonies of daily life in the era of new technology.
—p.244

Whew! But... the above just serves as an introduction to that second great shock of recognition, the one I mentioned at the beginning of this review; the very next paragraph of Cabinets of Curiosities showcases a specific touchstone for the bizarre that I've mentioned in several previous reviews, a place I've actually visited: the marvelous modern cabinet of wonders, housed in an unassuming building in Culver City, California, known as the Museum of Jurassic Technology!

Mauriès goes on to analyze the Museum of Jurassic Technology for several pages, which did much to alleviate my disappointment with other parts of the book—he really seems to get the MJT's elegantly threadbare, earnestly deadpan yet wholly self-aware aesthetic:

In other words, the space presents all the distinguishing marks of a museum, albeit a slightly impoverished one, hard up and improvised, put together in ad hoc fashion by a collector tinged with fanatacism and not wholly equipped to realize his ambitions. One becomes dimly aware, as a perceptive visitor has observed, 'that something is wrong. There is a very slight slippage which is the very essence of the place.'
—p.245

As something of a a senex puerilis myself, I found my trip through Cabinets of Curiosities ultimately worth the time it took—though your mileage, as they say, may vary.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of my obsessions; see https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

But I suppose I should be more suspicious of an author who wrote Chanel Catwalk: The Complete Karl Lagerfeld Collections.

I started enjoying this book more after skipping most of the main text, and focusing on the illustrations and captions (which sometimes overlap the main text in detail). For me, prose like this just sucks all the curiosity and wonder out of the cabinets:

We should not be tempted to over-simplify the multiplicity of the reasons that lay behind the progressive dissociation of the motives that bound together the culture of curiosities, and the marginalization that then ensued.

It goes on.

[Kyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The age of exploration incited curiosity of natural specimens, mechanical innovations, and marvelous objects, breeding the desire to collect and classify the rare, the strange, or (merely) everything.

This was a time before science, art, and fantasy diverged into catalogs, museums and encyclopedia, when the aesthetic arrangement and juxtaposition of uncommon items were as integral to a collection as the pieces themselves.

Patrick Mauriès picks out the most fascinating objects, collectors, and displays, building to a surprising crescendo in Emperor Rudolph II and the psychology behind the obsession of collecting. Meticulously researched and curated, the author reveals himself a collector of exquisite words.

"What do we really know of the evolution of patterns, of the interdependence of impulses, of unexpected collusions, of the unpredictable drifts and currents which precipitate us into esoteric tastes that must be satisfied, into frenzied quests and the cult of curiosities? At the very most, we may append ourselves as the newest and latest addition to the anatomy of this 'passion', and the make-up of the collector: a melancholic tropism, permeating and uniting the other necessary characteristics: an enquiring mind; a penchant for secrecy; a propensity for rationalization; a passion for the process of acquisition; a fascination for the transmutation of forms and hybrids; and an inexhaustible ability to question the boundaries between life and death, the nature of being and the evanescence of life."

This is a book both wonderful and wonder filled.

[Elysia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cabinets of Curiosities was an excellent sourcebook for my last assessment for University, which involved creating my own collection of curiosities for my fine arts class. I've been fascinated with the topic for a long time, and decided that it was time for me to add a book about cabinets of curiosities to my art book collection.

Although I haven't read all the text yet, as I used it mainly for aesthetic research, I do intend to go back and read it soon.

[?0?0?0 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been flipping through this over the past two years. Nicely put together collection of, you guessed it . . .

[Boyce McClain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Centuries ago, long before museums containing art and artifacts became commonplace some wealthy patrons, explorers and the curious often created and housed what were called Cabinets Of Curiosities-vast collections of oddities, artifacts, strange and unusual objects and other bric-a-brac.
Some charged modest entry fees to the general public to view the displays. Others kept thier displays private while others used them to impress guests.

The genesis of the Cabinets Of Curiosities is believed to have started during the Baroque Period. Although I’m sure collections and collectors existed before that time but in smaller numbers.

Part of the reason such collections flourished in the Baroque Period was probably due in part that nautical exploration of distant lands achieved via ship explorations.

Wealthy patrons during that time either traveled and collected themsleves or had others gather objects on their travels and bring back to the patrons.

Whatever the reason, Cabinets Of Curiosities proliferated.

In author Patrick Mauries’ new, deluxe hardbound book from Thames & Hudson: Cabinets Of Curiosities, delves into the history of the phenomenon accompanied by period drawings, paintings and photos of collections up until the present day.

Cabinets consist of themed exhibits such as insect collections, animals, small objects of art, human and animal skeletons, flora, fauna-almost anything or things imaginable.

The book looks at some the most famous or predominate collectors over the ages and how their collections came about, what they were and much more.

The book itself appears aged with its archaic looking cover and binding, selection of type, page layouts and carefully selected images.

Satisfy your curiosity with a literary examination of many of the cabinets of the bizarre.

Psalms 37:4 - Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've heard of these cabinets and have even once looked through a book on them, this book is filled with info, but I was somewhat disappointed as I expected for more photos. Could just be me. I am sure that the book will delight other people who want to learn about these cabinets of the unusual.

[F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very comprehensive volume about Cabinets of Curiosities and Wunderkammers. The illustrations were well-chosen and nicely annotated. The main downside for this book was the lack of editing and numerous typos and spelling errors.

[Donna Busch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about the art of displaying science or collection. But it does also give so,e background on the famous cabinets.

[Sarah]

Very curious.

[Anirudh Acharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the text can be safely ignored

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Believe it, I read the whole thing, but can hardly remember anything about what I read. Truly the type of knowledge to get in through one ear and then just out the next. It was just overly redundant, and just when you think you understood and got the point it just made a huge knot of itself, getting you back to square one. I do like the book for it's layout and illustrations, though there were a few pages here and there I think could have been embellished a little more. It almost felt like the text had been added in later at times so it didn't fit, ending in a few but annyoing white empty pages except for the text. But for the most part, the cabinets just spoke for themselves of the wonder and excitement these powerful objects holds.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know anyone that would actually read this book. It's quite esoteric and written for an academic audience. BUT you can ponder the wonderful illustrations and photographs that trace the development of the cabinet of curiosities from pre-museum to 20th century art piece. Some of the wonders are unfathomable. Who would have the time, patience, and passion to carve an ivory tusk into dozens of tiny ascending stairs? Or to carve a square from horn, with a circle within, and a star inside that? My take away is that there were some very rich people in the past with no idea how to spend their money and there were some amazing artisans who were bound to work for the idle rich. This book traces the lineage of this kind of private collection, both naturalia and artificialia -- works from nature such as shells and animal bones and works mechanical like clocks and automatons. All very interesting and intriguing!

[Mira · Rating 5 out of 5]

a giant lush coffee table book about the history of 16th/17th century wunderkammeren---the cabinets of curiosities created by early explorers, naturalists, scientists, emperors and the cultural elite. Great images!

[Frederic · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better coffee-table books on the subject. Focuses mainly on historical rather than contemporary collectors and their assemblages, with both period illustrations and photos of some of the objects today, and nice brief discussions of some of the kinds of materials that would be included.

[Gregg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous, fascinating book about the history of collecting items of nature in "cabinets" that sometimes were the size of large rooms.

[Bhan13 · Rating 5 out of 5]

adore