Cabinet of Curiosities (Massimo Listri)

Cabinets of curiosities fascinated people of the 16th and 17th centuries. They offered a glimpse into a world full of natural wonders and treasures that aimed to reflect the order of the universe. This volume takes us through the world’s most beautiful collections, into the Medici treasury or the Green Vault (Grünes Gewölbe) of Dresden, and offers no less than a brief cultural history of the miraculous. Wunderkammer of the World Hidden treasures, dreams of universal knowledge, and exquisite beauty The Wunderkammer, or “cabinet of curiosities,” saw collectors gathering objects from many strands of artistic, scientific, and intellectual endeavor, in an ambitious attempt to encompass all of humankind’s knowledge in a single room.From the Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici and Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg, these aristocratic virtuosos acquired, selected, and displayed the objects in real-life catalogues that represented the entire world—spanning archite