Description
Book SynopsisThe phenomenon of collecting as a systematic activity undertaken for symbolic rather than actual needs, is traditionally taken to originate in the middle of the fifteenth century, when the first cabinets of curiosities appear in Italy. Yet it is clear that the practice of collecting started long before that, indeed its origins can be traced back thousands of years to European prehistoric communities. Whilst this early genesis is, due to lack of written records, still shrouded in much mystery, The Nature of Classical Collecting argues that the collecting practices of classical Greece and Rome offer a rich tapestry of experiences which can be reconstructed to illuminate a pivotal period in the long and ever developing phenomenon of collecting. Utilizing a wide variety of examples of classical collections - including grave goods, the accumulations of Greek temples and open-air shrines, the royal collections of Hellenistic kings, Roman art and curiosity collections, and relics - The Nat
Trade Review'Museology students will find the theoretical introduction and discussions of methodological approaches especially useful. Anyone with an interest in the history of museums will be able to mine the text for fascinating facts and insightful ideas, and gain an overall impression of a collecting period that has remained hidden up until now.' Museum and Society
Table of ContentsContents: Preface; Introduction; Reading ancient texts: methodological approaches to interpretation and appropriation. Part I Notions of collecting in the ancient world: Collecting material testimonies: antiquarianism and notions of the past; 'Gifts-to-men and gifts-to-gods': defining (collecting) values; The concept of the individual as a cultural category: its implications in classical collecting; Collecting in time and space in the classical world. Part II Classical collectors and collections: Visiting Pliny's collection: reading a 'museum'; Poet's gifts, collector's worlds: the epigrams of Martial; 'Luxury is not for everybody': collecting as a means of sharing cultural and social identity; 'Furnishing' the collector's world: Cicero's Epistulae and the Verrine Orations. Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.
