Ch. I. The Theatre of the World -- Ch. II. Opening the Cabinets -- Ch. III. The Collector: 'senex puerilis' -- Ch. IV. The Phantom Cabinet: 18th-19th Centuries -- Ch. V. Resurgences: the Spirit of Curiosity
Summary
"In this erudite survey Patrick Mauries traces the amazing history of these 'rooms of wonders'. Not many survive, though there are pictorial records. But their contents still exist and are among the treasures of museums all over the world." "Once the concern only of scholars and art-historians, the cabinet of curiosities has, since the Surrealists, undergone an astonishing revival as an object of aesthetic pleasure, as well as emerging as a source of inspiration for interior decorators and contemporary artists." "This is one of those rare books that rescues a visually exciting but apparently abstruse subject from the distant past and shows its considerable resonant power to interest, excite and move us today."--Jacket
Notes
Simultaneously published in French
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (page 253) and index