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蒐藏全世界： 史隆先生和大英博物館的誕生
★從大英博物館的誕生看全球史
★收藏博物學家的博物學家，如何串接起東西方的採集網絡？
★藏珍閣裡的物件排列和分類，如何反映宇宙秩序？
★第一座公共博物館，如何體現公民與國家的新關係？
★如何從轉型正義的新視角，看待這位奴隸主？
《衛報》《倫敦時報》《紐約時報》《紐約書評》選書
英國科學史學會Hughes Prize
美國十八世紀研究學會Louis Gottschalk Prize和
Annibel Jenkins Biography Prize
美國歷史學會Leo Gershoy Award
當今的大英博物館收藏了人類過去的寶藏，但是在它誕生的時刻，卻是探索新世界的前沿基地。它的奠基者漢斯・史隆，為博物館的庫房藏量和定位，立下了第一個里程碑。他過世後，後人根據他的遺囑，成立世界上第一個「公共博物館」。
為什麼史隆願意不計一切代價，致力收得全世界各處的物件？自然史的採集，不只是為了個人求知的熱忱，更是承自「藏珍閤」的傳統，透過物件的排列和分類，博物學家不僅揭示了可資利用的經濟資源，還意圖展現神的秩序，文明與野蠻的分野，迷信到理性的進程。
但是，要網羅什麼樣的物件，才能展現世界運行的奧秘？什麼樣的事物才算「珍奇」？「一根珊瑚掌」「一顆結石」「一段牛脊椎，上面被一支橡樹枝貫穿」，這些奇特的物品如何被歸類？又如何視覺化這些物件，讓知識交流更精確？
故事裡，史隆並不是唯一的智者，若沒有非洲奴隸提供的採集技能和植物知識，史隆便無法從距離歐洲千里之遙的牙買加，深度探取美洲的物件，奠定跨洋尺度的多樣性；若沒有英國東印度公司僱員的協助，或者從「福爾摩沙」來到倫敦的騙子的誆言，或者全球各地各有所圖的採集者所上繳的標本，史隆便無法突破地理空間限制，將物件集中到帝國中心。他親自做採集（collecting），但更多時候，他是收集博物學家的博物學家（the collector of collectors）。
現代世界從採集（to collect）開展。光是將成千上萬個物件加以分類、條列，編纂成目錄（to catalogue），本身就是通往認識外在世界的方法。能夠完成一份目錄清單，證明了具備堅強的軍事力量、充沛的商業活力，以及文化實力。強國才能對外徵集，進而編寫目錄清單、打開藏珍閣供人參觀，展現萬物的法則。
這本書首次運用史隆的標本與物件、還有他的「物種目錄」所寫成。史隆的遺願是維持收藏的完整性，結果卻被現代學科專業化的趨勢所沖散，變成植物標本歸於自然史博物館、書信手稿歸於大英圖書館、其他物件與圖冊歸於大英博物館。作者試圖將完整的史隆拼回來，也讓我們更加認識帝國的歷史。
★收藏博物學家的博物學家，如何串接起東西方的採集網絡？
★藏珍閣裡的物件排列和分類，如何反映宇宙秩序？
★第一座公共博物館，如何體現公民與國家的新關係？
★如何從轉型正義的新視角，看待這位奴隸主？
《衛報》《倫敦時報》《紐約時報》《紐約書評》選書
英國科學史學會Hughes Prize
美國十八世紀研究學會Louis Gottschalk Prize和
Annibel Jenkins Biography Prize
美國歷史學會Leo Gershoy Award
當今的大英博物館收藏了人類過去的寶藏，但是在它誕生的時刻，卻是探索新世界的前沿基地。它的奠基者漢斯・史隆，為博物館的庫房藏量和定位，立下了第一個里程碑。他過世後，後人根據他的遺囑，成立世界上第一個「公共博物館」。
為什麼史隆願意不計一切代價，致力收得全世界各處的物件？自然史的採集，不只是為了個人求知的熱忱，更是承自「藏珍閤」的傳統，透過物件的排列和分類，博物學家不僅揭示了可資利用的經濟資源，還意圖展現神的秩序，文明與野蠻的分野，迷信到理性的進程。
但是，要網羅什麼樣的物件，才能展現世界運行的奧秘？什麼樣的事物才算「珍奇」？「一根珊瑚掌」「一顆結石」「一段牛脊椎，上面被一支橡樹枝貫穿」，這些奇特的物品如何被歸類？又如何視覺化這些物件，讓知識交流更精確？
故事裡，史隆並不是唯一的智者，若沒有非洲奴隸提供的採集技能和植物知識，史隆便無法從距離歐洲千里之遙的牙買加，深度探取美洲的物件，奠定跨洋尺度的多樣性；若沒有英國東印度公司僱員的協助，或者從「福爾摩沙」來到倫敦的騙子的誆言，或者全球各地各有所圖的採集者所上繳的標本，史隆便無法突破地理空間限制，將物件集中到帝國中心。他親自做採集（collecting），但更多時候，他是收集博物學家的博物學家（the collector of collectors）。
現代世界從採集（to collect）開展。光是將成千上萬個物件加以分類、條列，編纂成目錄（to catalogue），本身就是通往認識外在世界的方法。能夠完成一份目錄清單，證明了具備堅強的軍事力量、充沛的商業活力，以及文化實力。強國才能對外徵集，進而編寫目錄清單、打開藏珍閣供人參觀，展現萬物的法則。
這本書首次運用史隆的標本與物件、還有他的「物種目錄」所寫成。史隆的遺願是維持收藏的完整性，結果卻被現代學科專業化的趨勢所沖散，變成植物標本歸於自然史博物館、書信手稿歸於大英圖書館、其他物件與圖冊歸於大英博物館。作者試圖將完整的史隆拼回來，也讓我們更加認識帝國的歷史。
528 pages, Paperback
First published July 31, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 21, 2017
This is an interesting if somewhat haphazard intellectual history of Hans Sloane rather than a straightforward biography. Sloane's own approach to collecting 'curiosities' was random and opportunistic rather than structured and methodical, and Delbourgo's book follows a similar organisation. Even while the author tries to impose some order in his chapters, he also allows the kinds of digressions that reflect Sloane's 'Natural History', a cornucopia-style volume taking its lead from Pliny's Historia Naturalis. For Sloane, mathematical instruments jostle alongside seals, starfish and salts, and he is interested in collecting and cataloguing objects rather than analysing them or the cultures from which they spring and within which they're given value: Sloane is what would later be known as a dilettante rather than a specialist.
He's also quite a troubling man especially in relation to his responses to slavery: he accompanies the British governor of Jamaica to that island, witnesses not just the slave-ships bringing abducted Africans to Jamaica to work the British sugar plantations but also the extreme brutality of the slave regimes, yet can coolly record what he terms 'exquisite torments' (slaves being burned alive from their extremities up to their heads) without any emotion or any interest in the anti-slavery debates that existed alongside the institution.
The final chapter looks at how Sloane's diverse collection became the original heart of the British Museum. An enlightening read though my interests waned in the central chapters following Sloane's collections of flora and fauna. There are places where this feels a little naive in its writing but overall an interesting slant on issues of knowledge and empire.
He's also quite a troubling man especially in relation to his responses to slavery: he accompanies the British governor of Jamaica to that island, witnesses not just the slave-ships bringing abducted Africans to Jamaica to work the British sugar plantations but also the extreme brutality of the slave regimes, yet can coolly record what he terms 'exquisite torments' (slaves being burned alive from their extremities up to their heads) without any emotion or any interest in the anti-slavery debates that existed alongside the institution.
The final chapter looks at how Sloane's diverse collection became the original heart of the British Museum. An enlightening read though my interests waned in the central chapters following Sloane's collections of flora and fauna. There are places where this feels a little naive in its writing but overall an interesting slant on issues of knowledge and empire.
January 7, 2018
A wonderfully detailed history of Hans Sloane, physician and naturalist whose varied collections of plants, insects, objects, and manuscripts became the foundation for the British Museum. What's great here is the way the author so effectively incorporates Sloane's actual diaries and writings into the text, so that by the end I felt like I could hear the wonderful rhythms of his early-18th century voice. The book's style also effectively mimics Sloane's own epistemology, presenting his collections as long and sometimes exhausting lists of objects and specimens that don't always seem to have a clear connection but that reflect the way in which Sloane himself saw the world:
"Sloane was thus content to accumulate rather than theorize, at least to begin with. It would fall to specialists like Ray and later on Linnaeus to frame new taxonomies of plants and animals by genus and species. Sloane, meanwhile, saw his task as more fundamental: gathering thousands of fragments as the very building blocks for reinterpreting the order of nature, a colossal jigsaw that had to be assembled with great patience. His was a collection that did not immediately add up to a new big picture of the world — and that was as it should be."
"Sloane was thus content to accumulate rather than theorize, at least to begin with. It would fall to specialists like Ray and later on Linnaeus to frame new taxonomies of plants and animals by genus and species. Sloane, meanwhile, saw his task as more fundamental: gathering thousands of fragments as the very building blocks for reinterpreting the order of nature, a colossal jigsaw that had to be assembled with great patience. His was a collection that did not immediately add up to a new big picture of the world — and that was as it should be."
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November 15, 2017A very interesting read about the man who collected artifacts when in Jamaica, and got others to collect for him, then after his death, his huge collection became what is now known as the British museum.
December 13, 2019
Collecting the World: Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum is about physician and botanist Hans Sloane of England who launched a life-long career in collecting that began for the most part with a trip to Jamaica in 1687. Sloan’s collection was the foundation for the British Museum, which opened in 1759, six years after Sloan’s death. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, not only did it provide a glimpse into the controversies and scandals behind the founding of one of the first public museums in the West (given the purchase of the collection and building were funded by a public lottery), but it’s also about the nature of collecting botanical specimens, and other cultural artifacts. I’ve always struggled with the British Museum’s claim that they are a universal museum--a keeper of world heritage (this is part of their rationale for holding onto the controversial Elgin Marbles), but after reading of the museum’s history beginning with Sloan who followed Francis Bacon’s values of the 16th century which was to collect in order to establish scientific knowledge for the good of Britain and science in general (also in light of competing nations at the time, mainly Spain), I see where it's rooted.
Sloan’s motivations though went further than collecting for mankind or Britain; he is described by some as a pompous and vain man concerned with fame and money. Even though he was famous in Britain and his reputation brought collections and artifacts to him from around the world because of his notoriety (he even had a brand of hot chocolate named after him). Sloan’s critics, vocal in newspaper, journals and other public platforms claimed he was collecting primarily for fame and fortune. An Irish poet, Laetitia Pilkington after meeting Sloan in person wrote he was a "‘conceited, ridiculous, imperious, an old fool’ whose reputation for judgement and philanthropy accounted to little more than the power of his enormous wealth" (pg. 291).
What the book also offers is insight into the history of the concept of museums which stems from the 'cabinet of curiosities' phenomenon. The cabinet of curiosities featured mostly artifacts of the natural world. Some other museums I hadn’t realized went back so far in time; the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford, which opened in 1683, the Capitoline Museum of Rome, opened in 1734 and the Hermitage museum of Russia which began in 1764 (founded by Catherine the Great), and opened to the public in 1852.
A really phenomenal book that’s not just about the British Museum, but the history of scientific collecting and display of artifacts that’s led to the concept of museums as we know them today. A worthy read.
Sloan’s motivations though went further than collecting for mankind or Britain; he is described by some as a pompous and vain man concerned with fame and money. Even though he was famous in Britain and his reputation brought collections and artifacts to him from around the world because of his notoriety (he even had a brand of hot chocolate named after him). Sloan’s critics, vocal in newspaper, journals and other public platforms claimed he was collecting primarily for fame and fortune. An Irish poet, Laetitia Pilkington after meeting Sloan in person wrote he was a "‘conceited, ridiculous, imperious, an old fool’ whose reputation for judgement and philanthropy accounted to little more than the power of his enormous wealth" (pg. 291).
What the book also offers is insight into the history of the concept of museums which stems from the 'cabinet of curiosities' phenomenon. The cabinet of curiosities featured mostly artifacts of the natural world. Some other museums I hadn’t realized went back so far in time; the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford, which opened in 1683, the Capitoline Museum of Rome, opened in 1734 and the Hermitage museum of Russia which began in 1764 (founded by Catherine the Great), and opened to the public in 1852.
A really phenomenal book that’s not just about the British Museum, but the history of scientific collecting and display of artifacts that’s led to the concept of museums as we know them today. A worthy read.
July 30, 2017
… enjoyable, fascinating history …
Hans Sloane, the eighteenth century doctor, plantation owner and natural historian was wealthy and committed enough to amass the largest collection of artefacts in England, if not the entire world. After his death, the collection went on to become the foundation stones of the British Museum.
Entertaining and informative, James Delbourgo‘s biography, Collecting the World. The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane is a delightful read. James is a Professor of Science History at Rutgers University and his enthusiastic and thoughtful style is just right for such a complex and fascinating history as this. James steers his way through the social niceties of who was allowed to see (or even taste!) his collection to the harsh realities of the slave trade, from the vast and complex network of correspondents to Hans’ dream of a universal knowledge of God’s creation.
My only slight quibble was the lack of detail over his marriage to the wealthy widow, Elizabeth, their children or his extended family. These were only mentioned in relation to the collection and I would have liked to know a little more to complete the picture. As the focus is on the man and his collection, I suppose this side of the story could be justifiably dropped.
Given my fascination with Wunderkammer, I was particularly interested in the opening section where James lays out the history of these Curiosity Cabinets – the generous footnotes and references should keep me going for the Summer!
Highly recommended.
If your appetite has been roused, I’ve come across an online exhibition: Voyage to the Islands, Hans Sloane, Slavery and Scientific Travel in the Caribbean in which James Delourgo uses items from John Carter Brown Library based in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
This is my fifteenth review in the British Books Challenge 2017. Come and join us at over at Chelley Toy’s site.
Cover design moment: The beautiful and satisfying design using period engravings is by Richard Green, who is name checked on the flyleaf.
Collecting the World. The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane by James Delbourgo was published by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, on 15th June 2017.
Hans Sloane, the eighteenth century doctor, plantation owner and natural historian was wealthy and committed enough to amass the largest collection of artefacts in England, if not the entire world. After his death, the collection went on to become the foundation stones of the British Museum.
Entertaining and informative, James Delbourgo‘s biography, Collecting the World. The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane is a delightful read. James is a Professor of Science History at Rutgers University and his enthusiastic and thoughtful style is just right for such a complex and fascinating history as this. James steers his way through the social niceties of who was allowed to see (or even taste!) his collection to the harsh realities of the slave trade, from the vast and complex network of correspondents to Hans’ dream of a universal knowledge of God’s creation.
My only slight quibble was the lack of detail over his marriage to the wealthy widow, Elizabeth, their children or his extended family. These were only mentioned in relation to the collection and I would have liked to know a little more to complete the picture. As the focus is on the man and his collection, I suppose this side of the story could be justifiably dropped.
Given my fascination with Wunderkammer, I was particularly interested in the opening section where James lays out the history of these Curiosity Cabinets – the generous footnotes and references should keep me going for the Summer!
Highly recommended.
If your appetite has been roused, I’ve come across an online exhibition: Voyage to the Islands, Hans Sloane, Slavery and Scientific Travel in the Caribbean in which James Delourgo uses items from John Carter Brown Library based in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
This is my fifteenth review in the British Books Challenge 2017. Come and join us at over at Chelley Toy’s site.
Cover design moment: The beautiful and satisfying design using period engravings is by Richard Green, who is name checked on the flyleaf.
Collecting the World. The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane by James Delbourgo was published by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, on 15th June 2017.
March 16, 2018
This is a fascinating book about the man whose collections, essentially, formed the basis for the British Museum and Natural History Museums. Whatever one may think about the ethics of museums these days, and in particular the repatriation of antiquities, this is a really interesting perspective on the mindset of the early collectors. It also features the history of late Stuart/early Georgian England (and the colonies) which I found interesting when viewed through the perspective of one man's obsessive collecting.
If I have one fault with the book, it is that I read the hardback copy which proved really heavy. However, the fun I had reading the book meant that I persevered!
If I have one fault with the book, it is that I read the hardback copy which proved really heavy. However, the fun I had reading the book meant that I persevered!
April 12, 2018
Sir Hans Sloane; the man who created the British Museum, the man who rose from humble Irish origins to be the Kings surgeon, the man who owned the land on which Sloane Square stands. An interesting man with an interesting life.
I wanted to love this book, sad to say that I plodded through it. Interested enough to get to the end but gripped enough not to fall asleep after four pages.
I wanted to love this book, sad to say that I plodded through it. Interested enough to get to the end but gripped enough not to fall asleep after four pages.
February 12, 2026
What a strange guy Hans Sloane was! Also a bit peculiar, Delbourgo either spending multiple pages describing an instance in Sloane’s life or taking a sentence to say something and quickly changing topics to focus on something entirely different. I think I experienced some sort of whiplash during Sloane’s trip to Jamaica, with each crazy situation appearing right after the other. Anyways, interesting (albeit long) read! I’ve never heard of a normal person from County Down.
Would Graham Gore survive the events of this book: I see GG thriving in this book’s events. All he would do is go around collecting plants and animals and then draw them. As we know from commandorgrahamgore.com and from Harry Goodsir’s account, he was such a talented artist and always willing to draw little critters. Get this man out of the arctic and back into warmer climates. ANYWAYS, rare occurrence where GG survives!!! just don’t do the activities the other men are doing, Commander Gore!!! and stay away from Sloane!!!!
Would Graham Gore survive the events of this book: I see GG thriving in this book’s events. All he would do is go around collecting plants and animals and then draw them. As we know from commandorgrahamgore.com and from Harry Goodsir’s account, he was such a talented artist and always willing to draw little critters. Get this man out of the arctic and back into warmer climates. ANYWAYS, rare occurrence where GG survives!!! just don’t do the activities the other men are doing, Commander Gore!!! and stay away from Sloane!!!!
June 27, 2020
Interesting biography of Sir Hans Sloane, a 17th-18th century London physician/botanist whose extensive collections formed the basis for the British Museum. From a museum studies standpoint, he is at once a hero as the inventor of the public museum, but also a monster, as a large part of his personal wealth came from Jamaican sugar plantations where he bought and used enslaved humans. His will stated, "I do hereby declare, that it is my desire and intention, that my said museum or collection be visited and seen by all persons desirous of seeing and viewing the same and rendered as useful as possible, as well towards satisfying the desire of the curious, as for the improvement, knowledge and information of all persons." How do we decolonize museums when they were literally built on slavery?
January 11, 2018
Confession: this took a ridiculously long time to finish because it weighed so much. I've gotten so used to reading on a kindle that a big fat hardcover is hard to handle: you can't read it in bed at night for fear you'll doze off and it will fall on your nose and break it. That said, it was an excellent overview of British global ambitions, both scientific and commercial, in the first half of the 18th century.
February 25, 2021
I wanted to like this book - I am so very drawn to the notion of collecting but boy oh boy is this book a bore. In an attempt to appease everybody - this book takes a middle stance and does not take a hard stance on anything at all. Its too wishywashy which is honestly probably a testament to who Sloane is as a person.
There are other resources to learn from out there. Sloane is definitely important to history but let's find other medias to consume from.
There are other resources to learn from out there. Sloane is definitely important to history but let's find other medias to consume from.
December 14, 2025
Good book very packed full of info. A bit longer than it needed to be and felt it stranded between an academic and wider audience. The massive list of citations (a third of the total volume) made it heavy (literally) bedtime reading. Overall an important book but maybe trying to do too many things.
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November 28, 2022Fascinating. But almost like a textbook. Told me more than I wanted to know. So couldn't finish & font too small. Should be on "Overdrive" = Library consortium for free Kindle downloads.
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October 8, 2019Delbourgo meticulously assembles and curates the life and times of soggy meat patty, Sir Hans Sloan, into a monumental slog. The first two chapters cover young Sloan's adventurous days of humble origins in Ulster and his continental education and then to his work over sees as a physician on a Jamaican plantation. The following chapters see the man from his many aspects in London: Sloan the public personality both marveled at and chastised by the snide London satirists , Sloan the cataloguer of countless curious objects, Sloan the agent with vast contacts around the world who deliver him exotic samples, and Sloan the gracious host who shows off his vast collection to many ladies and gentlemen of enlightened society.
I was under the impression the book would say something of Sloan's legacy in helping to change the public imagination in 18th century England from parochial to global. The book doesn't go that far, but it does say much in the last chapter about how the knowledge stored in his collection was part of a political and social dimension in Britain and its development through modernity.
I was under the impression the book would say something of Sloan's legacy in helping to change the public imagination in 18th century England from parochial to global. The book doesn't go that far, but it does say much in the last chapter about how the knowledge stored in his collection was part of a political and social dimension in Britain and its development through modernity.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews