Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500-1800
Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990.
First Edition. Hardcover.
First Edition.
An examination of the history of collecting in early modern Europe, and a description of 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 characterized 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 analyzed in terms of a conflict between aesthetic and historical sensibilities.
Table of Contents:
- Foreword
- The Collection: Between the Visible and the Invisible
- The Age of Curiosity
- Collections in Venetia in the Heyday of Curiosity
- Medals / Shells = Erudition / Philosophy
- Dealers, Connoisseurs and Enthusiasts in XVIII Century Paris
- Maffei and Caylus
- Collectors, Naturalists and Antiquarians in the Venetian Republic of the XVIII Century
- Private Collections, Public Museums
- Notes.
ISBN: 0745606806
6 x 9-1/4", black cloth, black endpapers, 348pp, notes, index.
Fine in near fine dust wrapper and protective mylar.
Price: $185.00