The Theorists Samuel Quiccheberg (1529-1567) Kunstkammers were put into a scholarly context for the first time by Samuel Quiccheberg, who was artistic consultant to Duke Albrecht V (1550-79) in Munich. His Inscriptiones vel tituli theatri amplissimi from 1565 is the earliest known museological treatise, and was intended as a guide for the arrangement of encyclopaedic princely collections. Quiccheberg reviews the different groups of objects which ought to be included in a kunstkammer, separates them into 'classes', or categories, and provides practical advice in connection with maintenance and presentation of the numerous diverse objects. Quiccheberg's model is divided up into 5 'classes': 1. Religious art and history, the genealogy of the founder and portraits of the ruling house, as well as topographical representations of the country, of military operations and ceremonies, of architecture, together with models of machinery. 2. Sculptures and numismatica, and art forms related thereto. 3. Natural specimens, natural historical collections, art objects and ethnographica. 4. Scientific and mechanical instruments. 5. Paintings and graphic works, precious stones, games and entertainment, heraldry, textiles and objects from the local region. Quiccheberg maintains that the collections should have, amongst other things, their own associated laboratories and workshops for the production of objets d'art, a printing house, a library and dispensary. Several of these features were to be found in the European kunstkammers. The most important contribution of Quiccheberg's treatise was the placement of the concept of the museum within a scholarly context. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) The most precise account regarding the notion of the all-encompassing kunstkammer is provided by the English philosopher Francis Bacon in his Gesta Grayorum (1594): 'First, the collecting of a most perfect and general library, wherein whosoever the wit of man hath heretofore committed to books of worth … may be made contributory to your wisdom. Next, a spacious, wonderful garden, wherein whatsoever plant the sun of divers climate, or the earth out of divers moulds, either wild or by the culture of man brought forth, may be … set and cherished: this garden to be built about with rooms to stable in all rare beasts and to cage in all rare birds; with two lakes adjoining, the one of fresh water the other of salt, for like variety of fishes. And so you may have in small compass a model of the universal nature made private. The third, a goodly, huge cabinet, wherein whatsoever the hand of man by exquisite art or engine has made rare in stuff, form or motion; whatsoever singularity, chance, and the shuffle of things hath produced; whatsoever Nature has wrought in things that want life and may be kept; shall be sorted and included. The fourth such a still-house, so furnished with mills, instruments, furnaces, and vessels as may be a palace fit for a philosopher's stone.' (Quoted after The Origins of Museums. Oxford 1985) To previous page Kunstkammers in Europe To next page Cabinets of Specimens