Museum Wormianum The collection of Ole Worm (1588-1654) was influenced by his scholarly interests, since it was primarily created for use in teaching at the University of Copenhagen, where he was Professor of Medicine. The major part of the collection therefore consisted quite logically of natural specimens. He assembled and classified a large number of these from the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. The collection also contained antiques, art objects and ethnographica, which were both a supplement to his teaching and a demonstration of his interest in antiquities. Collecting Worm was very purposeful in his collecting. From his extensive correspondence with family members and friends, who were to a great extent the foremost researchers and collectors of the day, it can be seen how he set out his requirements for specific items. In the 1640s he published modest but concise listings of his collection with a view to establishing contacts for exchanging pieces. A little printed catalogue from 1642 is unfortunately known in only one example (in the British Museum), while another one from 1645 has disappeared. Museum Wormianum His supreme achievement was the Museum Wormianum, published in 1655, a year after his death. A major work in early European museum literature, it was written in Latin and printed in Leiden and Amsterdam. The text is divided into four books, the first three dealing with minerals, the plant and animal kingdoms. The fourth takes in manufactured objects, for example archaeological and ethnographical items, coins and some original works of art. All the pieces in the fourth book are classified according to the material used in their production. The text is of a somewhat irregular character, some chapters appearing to be lecture notes, while others confine themselves to reeling off names. According to Worm's own words, the work includes only those objects and specimens which were to be found in the collection. The work is not merely a catalogue, but a scholarly work with references to, and quotations from, other writers. Frontispiece from Museum Wormianum 1655 The transfer to the Royal Kunstkammer The collection was purchased by Frederik III after Worm's death, and in the course of July 1655 transferred to Copenhagen Castle, where large parts of it went into the Kunstkammer. With this purchase two dissimilar forms of Renaissance collection came to be merged: On the one hand a royal kunstkammer, and on the other a Renaissance scholar's cabinet of specimens. In 1750-51 the Gottorp Kunstkammer was brought to Copenhagen and absorbed into the Danish Royal Kunstkammer. The uniting of two northern European Kunstkammers also brought together the collection of Bernhard Paludanus and the 'Museum Wormianum'. To previous page The Collection of Bernhard Paludanus To next page Ole Worm