Cabinets for the Curious: Looking Back at Early English MuseumsRoutledge, 2017. márc. 2. - 312 oldal The last few years has, within museums, witnessed nothing short of a revolution. Worried that the very institution was itself in danger of becoming a dusty, forgotten, culturally irrelevant exhibit, vigorous efforts have been made to reshape the museum mission. Fearing that history was coming to be ignored by modern society, many institutions have instead marketed a de-intellectualised heritage, overly relying on computer technology to captivate a contemporary audience. The theme of this work is that we can do much to reassess the rationale that inspires contemporary collections through a study of seventeenth century museums. England's first museums were quite literally wonderful; founded that is on the disciplined application of the faculty of wonder. The type of wonder employed was not that post-Romantic idea of disbelief, but rather an active form of curiosity developed during the Renaissance, particularly by the individuals who set about gathering objects and founding museums to further their enquiries. The argument put forward in this book is that this museological practice of using objects actually to create, as well as disseminate knowledge makes just as much sense today as it did in the seventeenth century and, further, that the best way of reinvigorating contemporary museums, is to return to that form of wonder. By taking such a comparative approach, this book works both as a scholarly historical text, and as an historically informed analysis of the key issues facing today's museums. As such, it will prove essential reading both for historians of collecting and museums, and for anyone interested in the philosophies of modern museum management. |
Tartalomjegyzék
1979 | |
Contents | |
THE NARRATIVE TRADITION | |
Robert Plots Philosophical Histories | |
Learned Treasures | |
Telling Stories in Museums | |
THE FUNCTIONAL TRADITION | |
Medicinal Chemistry 8 Using Museums | |
THE TAXONOMIC TRADITION | |
The Reform of Learning | |
Classifying Gods Work | |
Ordering Museums | |
The Wonder of Museums | |
Bibliography | |
Más kiadások - Összes megtekintése
Cabinets for the Curious: Looking Back at Early English Museums Ken Arnold Korlátozott előnézet - 2006 |
Gyakori szavak és kifejezések
Anthropology Antiquities Apothecaries artefacts Ashmolean Museum Books British Museum Cabinet of Curiosities cabinets Cambridge University Press catalogue chapter chemistry classification coins collectors Compleat concern contemporary context curators curiosities Daston described Early Modern eighteenth century Elias Ashmole England English enquiry example exhibitions Fossils Francis Lodwick idea intellectual investigation John Aubrey John Evelyn John Ray John Woodward Journal knowledge language London Lorraine Daston Martin Lister materia medica material culture medals Medicine memory Michael Hunter Musaeum Regalis Societatis museum objects narrative Natural History Nehemiah Grew numismatics Oxfordshire particular passim Paula Findlen Pearce Plants Plot's practice R.W.T. Gunther Ralph Thoresby reform Regalis Societatis London Renaissance Robert Hooke Robert Plot role Routledge Royal Society Royal Society's Repository Science in Oxford scientific seventeenth century significant Sloane Smithsonian Institution Press social specimens Susan taxonomic things Thomas Thoresby Tradescant's visitors visual vol.III Wilkins William York