The Collector's Voice: Critical Readings in the Practice of Collecting, Volume 2: Early Voices 2

The Collector’s Voice is a major four-volume project which brings together in accessible form material relevant to the history and practice of collecting in the European tradition from c. 1500 BC to the present day. The series demonstrates how attitudes to objects, the collecting of objects, and the shape of the museum institution have developed over the past 3000 years. Material presented includes translations of a wide range of original documents: letters, official reports, verse, fiction, travellers' accounts, catalogues and labels. Volume 1: Ancient Voices, edited by Susan Pearce and Alexandra Bounia Volume 2: Early Voices, edited by Susan Pearce and Kenneth Arnold Volume 3: Imperial Voices, edited by Susan Pearce and Rosemary Flanders Volume 4: Contemporary Voices, edited by Susan Pearce and Paul Martin Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 General preface to series 9 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction 13 I Curious voices 26 1 Giulio Camillo's magical proto-museum 28 2 Samuel á Quiccheberg's 'classes': the first modern museological text 31 3 Gabriel Kaltermackt's advice to princes 37 4 Francis Bacon advises how to set up a museum 42 5 The German traveller Thomas Platter describes the English collection of Walter Cope 46 6 Ulisse Aldrovandi collects insects 51 7 Henry Peacham's advice to gentleman collectors 54 8 The Earl of Arundel views the King of Bohemia's collection 58 9 John Evelyn records in his diary the collections he has seen in Florence 63 10 The collection of King Charles I of England 67 11 John Dury advocates school museums 71 12 The catalogue of the Tradescant collection: England's first substantial museum 75 13 John Bargrave gives an account of his museum collection 82 II Scientific voices 86 14 John Wilkins experiments with a philosophical museum language 88 15 John Winthrop reports upon some American curiosities 92 16 Robert Plot surveys the natural history of Oxfordshire 97 17 James Petiver describes how to preserve natural specimens 102 18 A show elephant becomes an anatomy exhibit 107 19 Robert Hooke muses on language and memory, in which the idea of a museum or repository plays a significant part 112 20 Nehemiah Grew writes the 1681 catalogue of the Royal Society'S Repository 119 21 Elias Ashmole organises the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 125 22 Hans Sloane describes a 'China Cabinet' 131 23 Zacharias Conrad von Uffenback describes Hans Sloane's collection 135 24 John Woodward sets out a classification for fossils 139 III Enlightened voices 143 25 Michael Valentini lists contemporary collections 145 26 The collections of Carl Linnaeus and their arrival in Britain 150 27 Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Daniel Solander collect in the South Seas 153 28 The Duchess of Portland collects shells and antiquities 163 29 Captain Chapman sends Whitby fossils to the Royal Society collection 171 30 The Resta collection of drawings is sold 175 31 Thomas Martyn collects collectors 181 32 Alexander Pope mocks collectors and their habits 191 33 Gowin Knight's proposal for the establishment of the British Museum, and for Sloane's collection within it 195 34 Overseas and native visitors view the British Museum 200 35 Collecting as revolution 203 36 Miss Benett collects fossils in Wiltshire 207 37 Mary Anning: collectrice extraordinaire 211 IV Antique voices 217 38 Johann Winckelmann describes the antiquities discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii 219 39 Charles Townley and his marbles 224 40 Henry Blundell forms his collection of marbles 231 41 Sir Richard Worsley collects on a Grand Tour 235 42 Robert Wood, explorer of Palmyra, muses on ancient architecture and sculpture 238 43 Sir William Hamilton, a many-side connoisseur 242 44 Plaster shops in Britain, 1760-1820 247 45 Correspondence between Charles Tatham and Henry Holland 252 46 The Edinburgh Trustees buy classical plaster casts for their academy 257 47 Captain Francis Beaufort, Royal Navy, surveys the coastal lands of Asia Minor 260 48 Charles Robert Cockerell travels to the temple of Bassae in Arcadia 263 49 Lord Elgin acquires the Parthenon Marbles 271 50 'Ambulator' describes the New Gallery at the British Museum, opened in 1810 281 V Strange voices 285 51 Collecting jewels from India 287 52 Exotic collectables come back from Captain Cook's voyages of discovery 292 53 George Vancouver sails up the north-west coast of America 302 54 Sir Ashton Lever collects, and then organises a lottery 304 55 William Bullock's London museum 310 56 Visitors see sensational collections at York 321 57 William Beckford collects his fantasies 323 58 Horace Walpole collects at Strawberry Hill 332 59 The Society of Antiquaries of London encourages the study of antiquity and the collecting of its remains 337 60 Sir John Soane and his house of collection at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London 342 61 Sir Walter Scott describes a collector of antiquities 347 62 Newcastle collects antiquities 351 Bibliography 356 Index 367 They say that this man has constructed a certain Amphitheatre, a work of wonderful skill, into which whoever is admitted as spectator will be able to discourse on any subject no less fluently than Cicero.