Cabinets of Specimens Cabinets of natural specimens are believed to have been first created in Italy to satisfy the needs of scholars. The hitherto consulted classical scientific works of writers such as Aristotle, Theophrastus and Pliny were no longer adequately. Previously unknown animals and plants were emerging from the new continents to the east and west. The scholarly libraries had to be expanded, and they were supplied with collections of natural specimens and botanical gardens. Detail of frontispiece from Museum Wormianum 1655 Most of the early cabinets of specimens were privately-owned collections. Worthy of mention are both the extensive collection of the apothecary Ferrante Imperato (1550-1615) in Naples, and that of Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) in Bologna. Aldrovandi was Professor of Natural History at the University of Bologna, and was also responsible for the establishment of the Bologna Botanical Gardens in 1567-8. He used his collection both for research and in education. Aldrovandi's contribution to the development of the natural sciences was considerable, since he instituted the comparative system, which was adopted by the apothecaries in their collections. His chief work, the Historia Naturalis was encyclopaedic. Based on descriptions of collected natural history specimens, it was at the same time a fully-detailed account of all that was known regarding the natural sciences. Two renowned cabinets of specimens of the period were united in Copenhagen in the 1700s - the collection of Bernhard Paludanus and the 'Museum Wormianum' To previous page Renaissance Collections To next page The Collection of Bernhard Paludanus