Museum Wormianum. Seu, Historia rerum rariorum tam naturalium, quam artificialium, tam domesticarum, quam exoticarum, quae Hafniae Danorum in aedibus authoris servantur.
Folio (35.9 x 21.9 cm). [12], 389, [3] pp., [1] engraved double-page folded plate by G. Wingendorf showing Worm’s Wunderkammer (as often bound without the engraved portrait of Worm); 12 engraved illustrations in text (two of these full-page), and an additional 140 woodcut illustrations in text; printer’s mark on title-page, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and decorative initials. Bound in contemporary stiff vellum, yapp edges, light spotting and soiling, with ink titling on upper spine. Generally an unsophisticated, very good copy housed in its original vellum. First edition of this illustrated description of the remarkable cabinet of curiosities collected by the Danish polymath, Ole Worm (1588-1654), a physician, linguist, naturalist, and a professor of medicine at the University of Copenhagen. Worm amassed an expansive collection, housed in his “Museum Wormianum”, consisting of an assortment of bizarre and exotic objects, antiquities, and taxidermied animals reflecting his broad intellectual interests. The catalogue opens with a striking double-page frontispiece offering a comprehensive view of Worm’s collection, with items and specimens displayed on shelves, suspended from the walls and ceiling, and stored in boxes. Throughout the text, numerous illustrations document a diverse array of specimens, ranging from Scandinavian and exotic biota to fossils, ethnographic objects, and archaeological finds. The catalogue is organized into four categories: minerals, plants, animals, and artificialia (man-made objects). The structure follows a natural hierarchy, ascending from the lowest kingdom, minerals, to the highest, animals. The final category, artificialia, is treated as a distinct group outside the three kingdoms of nature. Of note are the mineralogical and chemical sections in Book I, which include fossils and incorporate Arabic nomenclature for various substances. The catalogue’s exotic flora section (Book II) highlights many plants native to the Middle East and Arabia, including the date palm, pistachio, and gum arabic. Humans are catalogued within the animal kingdom of Book III, alongside “divine monstrosities” such as malformed fetuses and skeletons and remains attributed to ancient giants; mummies, however, are categorized as minerals in Book I, reflecting 17th-century views on preserved matter. Book IV, De artificiosis, examines the collection’s man-made objects, ranging from contemporary exotica—such as American bows, arrows, and tobacco pipes—to historical antiquities, including Roman and Danish jewelry and metal weaponry from India and Norway. Also listed are several Chinese rarities, including porcelain, a compass, an ivory sculpture, and two vasa chinitica. The volume concludes with a detailed three-page index, each page printed in four columns of small type. Published posthumously by his son, Worm’s catalogue provides one of the earliest recorded descriptions of the bird of paradise and contains an important chapter on the narwhal. It was Worm who famously demystified the “unicorn horns” that were then the crown jewels of European cabinets of curiosities, scientifically identifying them as the elongated tusks of narwhals (DSB). Worm’s cabinet of curiosities quickly established itself as a significant public attraction. Upon his death, Frederick III of Denmark acquired the collection, transferring it to Copenhagen Castle, where it ultimately became part of the Danish Royal Kunstkammer.
Price: $9,850.00