The First Treatise on Museums: Samuel Quiccheberg's Inscriptiones, 1565

A new translation of a seminal sixteenth-century book on the collection and display of objects.

Samuel Quiccheberg’s Inscriptiones, first published in Latin in 1565, is an ambitious effort to demonstrate the pragmatic value of curiosity cabinets, or Wunderkammern, to princely collectors in sixteenth-century Europe and, by so doing, inspire them to develop their own such collections. Quiccheberg shows how the assembly and display of physical objects offered nobles a powerful means to expand...