Kabinetten, galerijen en musea. Het verzamelen en presenteren van naturalia en kunst van 1500 tot heden

Kabinetten, galerijen en musea ('Collection Rooms, Galleries and Museums') relates the extremely diversified history of collecting in Europe from about 1500 to the present day. The reader becomes acquainted with all sorts of collections, not only of art objects but also of objects relating to science and natural history. Topics discussed include the motives of kings, governments and private individuals in building up collections and the roles these collections were expected to play. Because the way the collections were ordered and displayed is a good indication of their functions, the history of presentation is a central theme throughout the book.
In fifteen chapters, typical examples are used to describe and examine views on and the practice of collecting and presenting, in relation to developments in thinking about both art and the natural world. The history of collecting is treated as an aspect of the history of science. The first six chapters are devoted to the era of the encyclopaedic collection: the sort of collection which aimed to represent 'the entire knowledge of the world' by including a wide range of objects. The other chapters discuss the development of four specialized institutions from the late eighteenth century onwards: the natural history museum, the ethnographical museum, the museum of applied arts, and the museum of fine arts. In the last six chapters the discussion gains greater depth through an emphasis on the museum of fine arts.