Book Description
Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities is one of the 18th century's greatest natural history achievements and remains one of the most prized natural history books of all time.Though it was common for men of his profession to collect natural specimens for research purposes, Amsterdambased pharmacist Albertus Seba (1665-1736) had a passion that led him far beyond the call of duty. His amazing, unprecedented collection of animals, plants and insects from all around the world gained international fame during his lifetime. In 1731, after decades of collecting, Seba commissioned illustrations of each and every specimen and arranged the publication of a four-volume catalog detailing his entire collection—from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish, corals, insects, butterflies and more, as well as fantastic beasts, such as a hydra and a dragon. Seba's scenic illustrations, often mixing plants and animals in a single plate, were unusual even for the time. Many of the stranger and more peculiar creatures from Seba's collection, some of which are now extinct, were as curious to those in Seba's day as they are to us now.
This reproduction is taken from a rare, hand-colored original. The introduction offers background information about the fascinating tradition of the cabinet of curiosities to which Seba's curiosities belonged.
Customer Reviews:
A fabulous visual treat.......2007-07-26
I'm not a biologist or scientist of any kind. But I am a fan of Taschen's publications and admire his goal of publishing high-quality photo/art books at reasonable prices. I happened to come across this book while browsing in the bookshop, was attracted by the Taschen name on the cover, took a peek inside and bought it on the spot. It was only afterwards that I discovered the history and historical significance of this collection. It's a beautiful book, filled with brilliantly colored illustrations of reptiles, butterflies, plants and animals. Great stuff and a real education for a layman like me.
lots and lots of drawings of snakes.......2007-07-10
snakes, bugs, plants, birds and all manner of living creatures. It is really an overwhelming collection. Worth getting a larger coffee table.
quality artwork from a time gone by.......2006-11-11
The old prints are just beautiful. Before photographs, books like these had hand painted reproductions of the animals. The detail is amazing. One can only imagine how long it must have taken to prepare these works.And collect the specimens.Check out the 7 headed hydra! And cheers to Taschen for another beautiful art book.
Science and Art.......2006-11-06
As a biologist, this book is for me the the marriage between science and art. A great collection of specimens drawn into a catalog from so long ago, it's a beautiful thing that it was saved and published. Just be warned, this book is BIG.
Beautiful Edition of Cabinet of Natural Curiosities.......2006-08-09
Beautiful book...I'd been waiting for a more palatable ($) edition of this book for quite awhile and was happily surprised at the quality.
Average customer rating:
- You might not sleep well at night
- Hang on for the ride!
- Cabinet of Curiosities
- The fourth one I've read...
- The horrors of a search for anti-aging secrets.
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The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast, Book 3
Douglas Preston , and
Lincoln Child
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Relic (Pendergast, Book 1)
ASIN: 0446530220 |
Book Description
In an ancient tunnel underneath New York City a charnel house isdiscovered.Inside are thirty-six bodies all murdered and mutilatedmore than a century ago.While FBI agent Pendergast investigates theold crimes, identical killings start to terrorize the city.Thenightmare has begun. Again.
Download Description
THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, like The Relic, takes place in and around New York's Museum of Natural History. FBI agent Pendergast, journalist Bill Smithback, and archaeologist Nora Kelly return in this harrowing thriller.The story begins with the gruesome discovery in downtown Manhattan of an underground charnel house containing the bones of dozens of murder victims. Research reveals that a serial killer was at work in New York's notorious Five Points neighborhood in the 1880s. But when a newspaper story on the old murders appears to spark a new series of horrifyingly similar killings, panic overtakes New York City, and far too many clues seem to lead to the conclusion that the original murderer may still be alive.
Customer Reviews:
You might not sleep well at night.......2007-09-16
A doctor turned serial killer on the loose in New York City, vivid descriptions of human dissection while the victim is still alive and conscious, a diabolical prescription for prolonging human life - not the sort of stuff I usually read. But this book was a gift, and so I began reading, thinking that after a few pages I'd set the book down for good. But I found myself being sucked into the dusty basement archives of the New York Museum of History where the mystery begins some 130 years prior, being sucked in and glued to the spot. The Cabinet of Curiosities is a very explicitly told tale, rich in texture, mood, and historical fact, with bizarre characters, some of whom readily fit the bill as whodunit suspects. So I read on, read about the terrible plight of a teenage girl in the nineteenth century, imprisoned by the mad doctor. Knowing she would soon die, she writes a note in her own blood and conceals it in the lining of her dress. 130 years later, the note comes to light when a gruesome charnel pit containing 36 bodies is unearthed revealing the heinous crime. Despite the ghastly subject matter, I could not put this damn book down. Authors Preston and Child are very skilled at their craft, conjuring up detailed imagery of the Cabinets, the dusty archives, the icy cold of the killer's laboratories. They keep the pace and tension going throughout. When all is said and done though, a few of the players of this large cast exit without giving the reader total satisfaction. The throwaway lines summing up the ridiculously stupid Captain Custer, for example, did not quite do it for me. Still, if you're looking for a well written page turner, this is definitely worth reading. Review by David Marsh, Sea Chest Books
Hang on for the ride!.......2007-09-14
After reading the first three pages of "The Cabinet of Curiosities", I rushed to the library and checked out every Preston/Child book there was. A week later, my family was sulking, the house was a wreck and I missed several events I was supposed to attend, but I'd finished all eight books. I still think it was a week well spent.
Not one book disappoints and each can stand alone. The plot twists are unpredictable even to this jaded reader, and for more than a few pages in more than a few books, the hair deliciously stood up on the back of my neck--a very rare experience for me.
These books have elements I always hope for but rarely find in contemporary fiction. They're smart! Bits of arcane trivia, hints of the supernatural, a cast of colorful and likeable characters, dark foreshadowings of evil to come and sometime FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast, who knows things no one else does--no, no, REALLY no one else does. Trust me when I say Aloysius Pendergast is worthy of comparison with Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey. While reminiscent of both, he's much more. The reader finds out...no, I'm sorry, you'll just have to read it yourself.
"The Cabinet of Curiosities" is THE perfect thriller, but every one of the Pendergast novels is great; each is very different from the others. Just don't start reading until you have time to finish--I'll be catching up on chores for weeks, though the family seems to have gotten over it.
Cabinet of Curiosities.......2007-08-24
Book arrived in excellent condition...I have not read the volume yet but am listening to an abridged version on tape and it's unusual, entertaining and very imaginative.
The fourth one I've read..........2007-06-25
Cabinet of Curiosities was the fourth book I've read by Preston and Child, and I'm reading my fifth one right now (Riptide). These guys know how to write gut-wrenching, stomach turning thrillers! FBI agent Pendergast, a great though unbelievably talented character, is back, although police detective D'Agosta is not in this one. As in the other books, Pendergast always escapes from hopeless situations, but that's no spoiler, since Preston and Child surely wouldn't kill off their best character.
For sheer suspense, I rate these authors on a par with Nelson DeMille. Cabinet of Curiosities can be pretty gruesome at times, and if you live alone, it's probably not the best choice for reading on a dark, stormy night unless you like being scared out of your wits.
If you've read other books by Preston and Child, Cabinet of Curiosities is as good or better than any of them. If you haven't read any of their books, I recommend starting with Relic and going through them in order so you can see the various characters introduced.
The horrors of a search for anti-aging secrets........2007-05-07
While preparing land for a development, the skeletons of children long dead are brought to light--buried within the walls of the foundation. The solution to the crimes involves the staff of the Museum of Natural History and a man's search for long life. Each chapter is a cliff hanger--it is impossible to put down once you begin! Look for its prequels as well.
Book Description
The cabinet of curiosities, that strange assemblage of marvels from the natural world with virtuoso man-made objects, seemed definitively consigned to realms where only scholars venture. Its 300-year history apparently came to an end with the eccentric collectors of the baroque age, when scientific thinking and rationalism took over. But in recent years the cabinet of curiosities has reappeared in exhibitions in Europe and America and in international colloquia on university campuses, while reemerging as a source of inspiration for interior decorators and contemporary artists.
This spectacular and ingenious book traces the history of these "rooms of wonders," from their first appearance in the inventories and engravings commissioned by Renaissance nobles such as the Medici and the Hapsburgs, via those of the Dane Ole Wurm and the Italian polymath Athanasius Kircher, to the cabinets of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century scientists Elias Ashmole and Levinas Vincent.
Much was genuinely scientific: minerals, fossils, stuffed and preserved animals and plants. Some items were merely curious, or even grotesque—freaks of nature, monstrous births, insects in amber. The artificial or man-made was equally prominent—wax effigies, death masks, specimens of almost incredible ingenuity (such as carvings on cherry-stones), or mechanical automata that imitated living things. The fascination of curiosities lies in their combination: they represent a stage of human inquiry in which imagination had not been divorced from reason.
Patrick Mauriès reconstructs these rooms of wonders as they were in their heyday and illustrates many of the most exotic items they contained, as well as the few complete interiors that survive. He begins with the totality of the collection, the "theater of the world," the whole sum of human knowledge gathered together in one room. He then examines the cabinets that contained and categorized the objects. Next he opens them to reveal the extraordinary mélange of curiosities, specimens, and works of art. He looks at the personalities of the collectors themselves, from great princes to humble scholars, and finally at the modern revival of the cabinet of curiosity. 250 illustrations, 150 in color; 256 pages, including 3 gatefolds.
Customer Reviews:
Gorgeous, but...........2007-06-18
Oh for a copy editor. This is a beautiful book, a delight to the senses. But the text contains too many careless errors. Mauries misspells, for example, both the name Linnaeus and the title of his famous book, Systema Naturae.
a guide to treasures that is a visual treat.......2003-07-08
Patrick Mauries' "Cabinets of Curiosities" is a study of rooms of wonder. Built during the Baroque Age in Europe, these rooms--sometimes large chambers and in other cases simply elaborate cabinets--held the natural and mechanical treasures that wealthy collectors assembled, often in an attempt to structure for themselves an entire universe. Consistent with the sumptuous nature of these collections and the complex manner in which they were displayed, "Cabinets of Curiosities" is distinguished above all by its color photography, its complex design scheme, and a use of cropping and perspective that give the reader a sense of personally entering the collection spaces shown.
Because of its size, focus on photography, and price, "Cabinets of Curiosities" could easily be dismissed as a coffee-table book for the few. However, its appeal should be broader. The instinct to collect and to categorize-- even if it involves only seashells found on the beach, leaves fallen in a forest, or unusual stones found around the home-- is universal. Transcending time and space, collecting and categorizing are fundamental in particular to the sense of wonder and process of learning that define childhood.
"Cabinets of Curiosities" can help us to see anew and celebrate anew the complexities and fascination of the animate and inanimate worlds about us. In these circumstances, it is particularly disappointing that the text is so lightweight in comparison to the photographs and that the confusing movement among typefaces makes it difficult to track the text. Mauries is to be congratulated for his bold thinking in fashioning this book and making it so beautiful. If he had devoted an equal amount of effort to researching, explaining, and documenting his subject matter, "Cabinets of Curiosities" would have risen to the ranks of a publishing classic.
Curiosity Satisfied.......2002-12-02
It is a chaotic world out there. It would be nice to bring that chaotic world in to a room, or even into a cabinet, and sort it all out, top to bottom. There have been those who have tried this, collectors who aspired to gathering parts of the world that would sum it all up, and place them together so that those parts could reflect upon each other. This quixotic aim is beautifully depicted in a big illustrated book, _Cabinets of Curiosities_ (Thames & Hudson) by Patrick Mauriès. You can look at the lavish illustrations here, and gain a bit of understanding of the obsessions of the collector, and you might look around your own relatively meager curios, and recognize some envy.
Mauriès speculates that the precursors of such cabinets were the relic collections in medieval churches. Such collections might have started with supposed pieces of saints or of the True Cross, but eventually included bizarre tangents like a vial of milk from the breast of the Virgin, or the rod used by Moses. The magical air of such a collection, but these cabinets were secular, built not by monks, but by kings and other wealthy men. As collectors perfected their assemblies, they sought out rarities, and this tended to make the collections full of idiosyncratic freaks. These sorts of marvels were to fill the viewer with wonder, but tastes in such things change. As the eighteenth century approached, wonder itself was regarded as a "low, bumptious form of pleasure," a credulousness which was out of place with scientific enquiry. Mauriès demonstrates that even though the collectors tried to emphasize relationships between the items in the cabinets, the surrealists were equally good at assembling items whose conjunctions would be without meaning. There is a picture of the surrealists' exhibition in Paris in 1936, and although the cabinet is metal and glass, it contains found objects, bones, and mathematical sculptures that any curiosity collector would have valued.
Mauriès's tour of strange collections of strange objects is great fun. His chapters about the history and fate of such collections, and the personalities that engaged in them, reflect a deeply intellectual appreciation. But _Cabinets of Curiosities_ is a picture book. There are reproductions of old prints showing how the collections used to look, as well as photographs of cabinets which still remain, and the strange objects of desire that filled them. It makes a good-looking volume. Pictures here include the cherry pit carved with thirty miniscule heads; ivory worked into seemingly impossible spirals, linked rings, and spheres within spheres; a jeweled cup with dragons horns (which are actually warthog tusks); portraits of "cat people" abnormally covered with hair; mechanical insects; and much more. Beautifully laid out, these pages are curious, indeed.
Customer Reviews:
What is in the book?.......2007-03-14
I have not seen this book but I have seen the smaller companion volume consisting of the plates. Does the larger book contain the plates and the text (in Latin?). When I first checked the price on Amazon it was $200, the next time it was $121, and the last few times it was $126. I am not sure if the price varies with the person looking at the info; I have found that BN typically increases the prices when I go back for a second look. If this large volume is complete then there is no reason to buy the companion book of plates. I gave it one star simply because I could not see the inside of the book. Does any one have more information about this book? After I find out more about the book then I may buy it.
My most cherished book.......2006-11-28
This book is an outstanding bargain. It is beautiful and breathtaking. I hadn't read the dimensions of the book before ordering and was really surprised when this 16 pound book arrived in its own cardboard case. The pictures are so gorgeous and some poster sized prints are included -- unfortunately, the images selected for the posters are not the most attractive of Seba's work. Before ordering, I had planned to cut out some of the prints for framing, but I can't bring myself to do that now --this book is just so amazing.
Impresive.......2006-11-06
The book is more than I expected. It will be proudly display at my store Sol Interios. I know it will get lots of attention.
The MOST amazing book ever............2006-07-28
You have to see this book in person to really appreciate how beautiful it really is. Every single page is filled with excellent drawings of hundreds of animals, plants, seashells, etc. It is absolutly outstanding. Every book lover, or nature lover should add this book to their collection. The price seems expensive but when you see the book it will be the best 140 dollars you have spent in a long time.
Coffee table? Oh yeah right........2005-12-10
This is a beautiful book, but I've had to factor in the cost of a dictionary stand or console table to display it. It's giant! and it looked silly on my average-sized coffee table.
Book Description
One of the great tropical naturalists of the seventeenth century, G. E. Rumphius-the "Indian Pliny"-spent most of his life stationed on the island of Ambon in eastern Indonesia. His classic text, the first modern work on tropical fauna, is here published in English for the first time. The book describes and illustrates the organisms of the seas surrounding Ambon, as well as minerals and rare concretions taken from animals and plants.
Customer Reviews:
Slimy Things That Crawl with Legs..........2000-09-23
This is the first complete English translation of an important work by the Dutch botanist, zoologist, and ethnographer Rumphius; it was first published in 1705. On his arrival on the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies, Rumphius began studying, as a hobby, the region's flora and fauna; soon, he was toying with the idea of writing a book on the subject.
However, he went blind at 42, and thus was forced to write his books during three decades of "sad darkness." Notwithstanding this misfortune, his charming descriptions are marvellously detailed; as though in compensation for his blindness, he had a prodigious visual memory and a gift for striking descriptions. (In fact, a 1990 scientific survey of Ambon praised Rumphius for his "great accuracy and reliability.") The black-and-white plates are beautiful, and would be worth having even if one had no intention of reading a word of the text.
Apart from its scientific virtues, "The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet" contains many evocative and mildly alarming passages, as thus: "The Dog Crab...extends its hollow passages under Houses, and crawls out of them at night, making a lot of noise. It also knows how to creep up on Chickens, grab one by the feet, and haul it to its hole, which causes the nocturnal noise that one hears sometimes coming from the Chicken coops. If you pour hot water in their holes, they have to come out."
This is a valuable work of ethnography as well, since Rumphius respectfully catalogs the natives' folklore and social behavior. And he is not above throwing in the odd bit of gossip, political commentary, or personal anecdote. (For hardier souls than myself, it might even serve as a cookbook, since Rumphius describes his attempts to eat virtually every creature he comes across.)
Rumphius epitomizes the best qualities of the woefully devalued seventeenth-century approach to science: as the editor and translator of this volume says, his writing "is ready to impart information yet is more interested in understanding, while as religion, it aspires to a state of rapture but does not want to impose orthodoxy or ideology." More by far than one could say of Richard Dawkins!
Anyone who enjoys this book may also wish to track down a used copy of "The Poison Tree," which comprises excerpts from the same author's massive "Ambonese Herbal."
Amazon.com
The history of medicine is a tale of human attempts to understand, explain, and predict the workings of nature. Sometimes those attempts can take strange turns, as Jan Bondeson shows in this diverting collection of medical oddments. A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities takes in matters such as stomach-dwelling snakes, not-unjustified fears of being buried alive, gigantism, lice-borne diseases, spontaneous combustion, and assorted monstrosities. Bondeson, a London-based medical researcher, combs out-of-the-way archives to populate his essays with strange case studies, among them the story of the California Indian Julia Pastrana, "a normal, intelligent woman of gentle disposition" who, owing to her unfortunate werewolf-like appearance, spent much of her life as a circus freak. Bondeson retells Pastrana's tragic tale, and many others, with sympathy and imagination.
Book Description
In this book of amazing oddities, Jan Bondeson explores unexpected, gruesome, and bizarre aspects of the history of medicine. He regales us with stories of spontaneous human combustion; vicious tribes of tailed men; the Two-Headed Boy of Bengal; Mary Toft, who allegedly gave birth to seventeen rabbits; and Julia Pastrana, exhibited around the world as the Ape Woman. Bondeson combines an historian's skill in showing us our timeless fascination with the grotesque with a physician's diagnostic abilities, as he examines the evidence and provides likely explanations for these peculiar events.
Customer Reviews:
Curious Indeed.......2007-04-17
A compilation of some very interesting people and unexplained syndromes / phenomenon. Spontaneous human combustion, premature burial, bosom serpents (live animals taking up residence in the human body), the lousy disease which strikingly resembles today's Morgellon's scare, tailed people, giants, dwarfs, the two-headed boy of Bengal (whom today would have easily been rendered single by a simple operation), and two women of note, one who duped the most respected physicians of the day by apparently breeding "rabbits," and the tragic, touching story of bearded lady Julia Pastrana who suffered from two separate genetic disorders. Julia was a lovely woman outside of her appearance, and the way in which her life, and that of her newborn son, and especially their deaths were mishandled is criminal. The author writes in a kind, evenhanded tone that shows a respect for his subject matter and the intelligence of his readers. This book contains plenty of first-hand accounts and historical data which adds great interest and welcome factual background. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with an interest in medicine and the strange ways nature and genes can combine. Note: The author mentions Gould and Pyle's ANOMALIES AND CURIOSITIES OF MEDICINE, published in 1897, as his inspiration for this book. This is available in its entirety on-line and is a riveting read.
A well written interesting read!.......2003-10-08
I do not think this is the type of book you want to buy if you are looking for a book with alot of photos of "freaks". This is a book that describes amazing things that people once believed and then it gives some evidence as to whether or not it really happened. I bought a whole bunch of books related to medical curiousities and "freaks" and I find this one to be the most interesting out of all of them. It is so well written that it teaches you alot about folklore and history without boring you. In fact it is quite a page turner and I often have a hard time putting it down! I've read it over and over again.
Remarkable Medical Curiosities Brilliantly Displayed.......2002-04-13
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (and even more recently), medical and natural history museums combined elements of science and folklore with an infatuation for the bizarre and grotesque. Thus, they were often likened to the old-time "cabinet of curiosities", displays of disparate and unusual artifacts which bore no relationship to one another. A visitor to these museums often saw things which, in later years, became the staple of carnival side shows.
In "A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities", Jan Bondeson, a British physician who also holds a doctorate in experimental medicine, has written a fascinating and brilliantly executed textual analogue to the cabinet of curiousities. In successive chapters, Bondeson details, among other curiousities, the histories of spontaneous human combustion, apparent death and premature burial, maternal impressions (the belief that what a pregnant woman sees and experiences can cause corresponding alterations in the unborn fetus), and people with tails. Bondeson tells true, and not so true, stories of dwarfs and giants. He relates the story of Mary Toft, the English woman who, in 1726, was believed to have given birth to seventeen rabbits. And, of course, such a compendium of marvels would not be complete without a bearded lady--in this case, Bondeson narrates the remarkable life story of Julie Pastrana, who made appearances throughout the world in the mid-nineteenth century and whose mummified body (along with the mummified corpse of her infant child) continued to draw crowds at fairs and carnivals many years after her death.
While these topics may seem grotesque, even repulsive, Bondeson writes with deep feeling for his human subjects and a wry sense of humor for the foibles of his sometimes credulous profession. He also integrates these seemingly freakish and disparate topics into remarkably lucid and informative discussions of their place in the medical, scientific, religious, and literary discourse of their times.
A Cabinet Of Medical Curiosities.......2001-06-16
"A Cabinet Of Medical Curiosities" is an interesting book. I expected better photos, not hand drawings.
Remarkable Medical Curiosities Brilliantly Displayed.......2000-07-10
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (and even more recently), medical and natural history museums combined elements of science and folklore with an infatuation for the bizarre and grotesque. Thus, they were often likened to the old-time "cabinet of curiosities", displays of disparate and unusual artifacts which bore no relationship to one another. A visitor to these museums often saw things which, in later years, became the staple of carnival side shows.
In "A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities", Jan Bondeson, a British physician who also holds a doctorate in experimental medicine, has written a fascinating and brilliantly executed textual analogue to the cabinet of curiousities. In successive chapters, Bondeson details, among other curiousities, the histories of spontaneous human combustion, apparent death and premature burial, maternal impressions (the belief that what a pregnant woman sees and experiences can cause corresponding alterations in the unborn fetus), and people with tails. Bondeson tells true, and not so true, stories of dwarfs and giants. He relates the story of Mary Toft, the English woman who, in 1726, was believed to have given birth to seventeen rabbits. And, of course, such a compendium of marvels would not be complete without a bearded lady--in this case, Bondeson narrates the remarkable life story of Julie Pastrana, who made appearances throughout the world in the mid-nineteenth century and whose mummified body (along with the mummified corpse of her infant child) continued to draw crowds at fairs and carnivals many years after her death.
While these topics may seem grotesque, even repulsive, Bondeson writes with deep feeling for his human subjects and a wry sense of humor for the foibles of his sometimes credulous profession. He also integrates these seemingly freakish and disparate topics into remarkably lucid and informative discussions of their place in the medical, scientific, religious, and literary discourse of their times.
Product Description
From the dust jacket: Albertus Seba's ''Cabinet of Natural Curiosities'' is one of the 18th century's greates natural-history achievements and remains one of the most prized natural-history books of all time. Though it was common for me of his profession to collect natural specimens for research purposes, Amsterdam-based pharmacist Albertus Seba (1665-1736) had a passion that led hmi far beyond the call of duty. His amazing, unprecedented collection of animals, plants and insects from all around the world gained international fame during his lifetime. In 1731, after decades of collecting, he commissioned illustrations of each and every specimen and arranged the publication of a four-volume catalogue detailing his entire collection - from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish, corals, insects, butterflies and more, as well as fantastic beasts such as a seven-headed hydra. The beautiful illustrations transport these creatures from the scientific world of specimens into extremely aesthetic and vivid scenes, where plants and animals intermingle. It is this narrative element that continues to lend the book much of its special fascination. This magnificent reporduction of all 449 of the original plates is taken from a rare, hand-coloured copy at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague. The introduction provides background information on the intriguing tradition of the cabinet of curiosities to which Seba's collection belonged, while an additional annex written by contemporary scientists provides descriptions of the specimens. A journey into the past and at the same time a road to rediscovering the wonders of Nature, which remain as vital as ever. OVERSIZED BOOK approx. 9''x15''x2'', weight 6.5 lbs., English, Latin.
Book Description
Four Wisconsin artists, Martha Glowacki, Mark Lorenzi, Natasha Nicholson, and Mary Alice Wimmer, are passionate collectors who use objects from their own collections to inform their individual artwork. This catalog documents an installation by each of the four artists that is reminiscent of the 16th- and 17th- century Wunderkammer, or cabinet of wonders, private collections of natural and man-made objects.
Distributed for the Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin–Madison
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Cabinets of Curiosities
