Museums and Their Functions: Lecture 02

1
Museums and Their Functions Lecture 02

• Brief History of Natural History Museums (Part I)

2
Introduction.

• One role of museums assembling objects and
  maintaining them within a specific intellectual
  environment (world view). This statement is
  pertinent in tracing the history of museums
  because world views change over time.

A world view is an implicit (rational) manner by
which a society perceives its surroundings and
functions within its surroundings.
Museum development is divided into six phases
corresponding to shifts in world view.
3
Historical Periods

• Six periods of natural history museum development
  according to Whitehead (1990).
• Greco-Roman Period (to 400 A.D.).
• Pre-Renaissance Period (400-1400).
• Renaissance Period (1400-1600).
• Pre-Linnaean Period (1600-1750).
• Linnaean Period (1750-1850).
• Modern Period (1850-present).

4
World View Periods

• According to Hooper-Greenhill (1992) there were
  three distinct periods of museum development

• Renaissance Episteme 1400-1600.

• Classical Episteme 1600-1750 Pre-Linnaean
  Period.

• Modern Episteme 1750-present Linnaean Modern
  periods.

Episteme is a world view.
5
Greco-Roman Period (to 400 A.D.)

• 290 BC Ptolemy II Philadelphus established center
  of learning dedicated to the muses (poetry,
  history, music, drama, dance, and astronomy) in
  Alexandria.

• Museum personnel included director, scholars,
  students, all supported by the state.

• First establishment for promotion of literature
  and science. Research and teaching were primary
  goals.

• Library and museum were destroyed during civil
  unrest between 270 and 275 AD.

6
Pre-Renaissance Period (400-1400)

• In the Thirteenth Century there was a revival of
  learning with translation of Greek writing into
  Latin.

• Period with veneration for rare, unusual,
  wonderful, and miraculous.

• Knowledge based on previous knowledge rather than
  observations.

• There was no a real concept of temporal change.
  Past was seen in terms of the present.

7
Renaissance Period (1400-1600)

• Medici palace, first museum of Europe.

• World view concerned with life in the present
  rather than contemplative ideal of earlier times.

• Secular values (power and influence) developed a
  new cultural field.

• Classical past was revered, classical artifacts
  and reproductions displayed, importance of
  temporal change realized.

• Knowledge consisted of discovering hidden
  similarities through correspondences (legends,
  hearsay and material offered clues to discovering
  likeness and relationships).

8
Palazzo Medici, Florence c. 1440 (first European
museum).
Palazzo Medici, Florence c. 1440 (first European
museum). It contained treasures of precious
metals and stones, and classical artifacts and
reproduction of classical artifacts (sculpture,
manuscripts, and coins). (From Hooper-Greenhill,
1992).
9
Renaissance Period (1400-1600)

• By end of 16th century private museums common in
  Europe. First were cabinets of curiosity later as
  cabinets of the world.

• Cabinets of the world (Kunstkammers) attempted to
  create models of nature.

• Cabinets included objects of magical powers,
  fossils, precious stones, classical artifacts and
  reproductions. (Little discrimination between
  original and reproductions.)

• Ordering and relationships of objects provided
  the message but message may be partially hidden.

10
Kunstkammer of Frans Franken the Younger (early
17th century).
Kunstkammer of Frans Franken the Younger (early
17th century). Paintings, figurines, shells,
dried fishes, and other natural and human
productions were brought together to represent
the world. (From Hooper-Greenhill, 1992).
11
Antiquarium of Wittelsbach, Munich, 1568.
Antiquarium of Wittelsbach, Munich, 1568.
Sculpture arranged in scheme of allegory and
symbol. Typical of displays to support social
status. (From Hooper-Greenhill, 1992).
12
Renaissance Period (1400-1600)

• Cabinets used interpretation, esoteric knowledge,
  memory techniques (places and images) to provide
  two or three dimensional models of the world.

• In part contents of cabinets determined by
  medicinal value and men trained in medicine
  studied zoology and botany.

• Early naturalists Pierre Belon (1517-64),
  Guillaume Rondelet (1507-66), Hippolyto Salviani
  (1514-72), Conrad Gesner ((1516-65), and Ulyssis
  Aldrovandi (1522-1605).

Memory techniques are a form of language
constructed of images and spaces to express ideas.
13
Renaissance Period (1400-1600)

• Conrad Gesners Histoia animalium. 4 vols.
  1551-1558.

• Included synonymy of each species, geographical
  variation, life history, fables, folklore,
  adages, proverbs, and emblems.

• The fables, folklore, adages, and proverbs
  summarize what the animal symbolize in human
  culture.

• Emblems consist of an image, preferably obscure
  motto, and an explanatory epigrammatic poem.

• Purpose of an emblem was to convey a clever
  truth, and emblems were very popular during the
  16th century.

14
Woodcut of a fox.
A
B
A. Woodcut of a fox. From Gesners Historia
Animalium (1551). B. Woodcut of fox emblem. From
Alciatis Emblematum libellus (1534).
Translation What a fine head this is but it has
no brain. From Ashworth 1996.
15
Emblem of a fox and badger.
Emblem of a fox and badger. From Camerarius
(1595). Translation What you want another has.
From Ashworth 1996.
16
Renaissance Period (1400-1600)

• Aldrovandi published a 13 volume encyclopedia of
  natural history.

• Had fine illustrations, including anatomical
  drawings.

• Descriptions were based to a large extent on
  observations.

• Fables, epithets, proverbs, allegories, emblems,
  and symbolic images were also included.

Epithets are adjectives, nouns, or phrases used
to characterize a person or thing.
17
Aldrovandi. Dragon of 1572.
Aldrovandi. Dragon of 1572.
18
Pre-Linnaean Period (1600-1750)

• Age of Discovery (early 15th and 16th centuries)
  brought end to Renaissance episteme.

• Discrimination rather than similitude became
  basis for knowledge.

• World became known by objective analysis rather
  than by subjective experience.

• 17th century proliferation of collections,
  botanical gardens, and menageries.

19
Pre-Linnaean Period (1600-1750)

• Museums develop from mere catalogs of nature to
  natural classifications, and museums tended to be
  specialized.

• There was a great mobility of museums and museums
  were used for teaching.

• John Ray (1629-1705) and Francis Willoughby
  (1635-1672) were the first modern naturalists to
  develop natural catalogs.

20
Museum of Francesco Calzolari (Verona, 1622).
Museum of Francesco Calzolari (Verona, 1622).
21
Museum of Olaus Worm, Leiden, 1655
(Museum of Olaus Worm, Leiden, 1655). From
Whitaker 1996.
22
Museum of Ferrante Imperato
Museum of Ferrante Imperato (Venice, 1672).
23
Museum of Ferdinando Cespi, (Bologna, 1677).
Museum of Ferdinando Cespi, (Bologna, 1677).
Cespi stressed the sensational.
24
Roman College Museum
Roman College Museum, (Rome 1678). Under
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) study of languages
was joined with the study of natural history.
25
References and Credits
Ashworth,W.B., Jr. 1996. Emblematic natural
history of the Renaissance. pp. 17-37. In
Cultures of Natural History (eds.) N. Jardine,
J.A. Secord, and E/C/ Spary. Cambridge Univ.
Press, New York.
Hooper-Greenhill, E. 1992. Museums and the
shaping of knowledge. Routledge, New York.
Whitehead, P.J.P. 1970. Museums in the history of
zoology. Mus. J.
Whitaker, K. 1996. The culture of curiosity. pp.
75-90. In Cultures of Natural History (eds.) N.
Jardine, J.A. Secord, and E/C/ Spary. Cambridge
Univ. Press, New York.