Maurie's tour of strange objects is entertaining and fascinating. -Antiques And The Arts Weekly

Unicorn horns, mermaid skeletons, stuffed and preserved animals and plants, precious metals, clocks, scientific instruments, celestial globes... all knowledge, the whole cosmos, organised on shelves in a single room. Such were the cabinets of curiosities of the 17th century, the last period in history when man could aspire to know everything.

The collectors were archdukes and kings - Emperor Rudolf II was the prince of all collectors - rich merchants and scholars, and their collections ranged from a single crowded room to entire palatial suites.Cabinets of Curiosities traces the astonishing history of these unique spaces, their receptacles and the fascinating contents within them, from their first appearance in the inventories and engravings commissioned by Renaissance noble families such as the Medici and Habsburgs, to those of the Danish Ole Wurm and the German polymath Athanasius Kircher, via the 17th-century scientist Elias Ashmole and the Dutch collector Levinus Vincent.

Publisher: Thames and Hudson