The history of museum collections and collectors

Müller Florian Martin, Das Archäologische Museum Innsbruck – Sammlung von  Abgüssen und Originalen der Universität Innsbruck: Forschen – Lehren – Vermitteln, in: Müller Florian Martin (Hrsg.), Archäologische Universitätsmuseen und –sammlungen im Spannungsfeld von Forschung, Lehre und Öffentlichkeit, SPECTANDA – Schriften des Archäologischen Museums Innsbruck 3 / Archäologie: Forschung und Wissenschaft 4 (Wien/Berlin/Münster 2013) 289-323.

In der vorliegenden Studie wird ein Musterfall von wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher und
forschungsgeschichtlicher Bedeutung untersucht. Im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit steht die Hypothese,
dass die erste solche archäologische Siedlungsausgrabung über eg Jahre der Institutionalisierung
des Denkmalschutzwesens, d. h. in der ersten Hälfte der Vafger Jahre erfolgt sein konnte, und
daher eher das Zusammensammeln archäologischer Denkmäler, als wegen im Zeitalter üblichen
Bau- und Bodenarbeiten (z.B. Bautätigkeit, dem Ausbau der städtischen Infrastruktur, der
landwirtschaftliche Arbeiten, oder der Brunnengraben) zusammenhing.
Die Ausgrabung leitende „Experte”, Anton Horváth hat vorangehend jahrelang mit
einem heutigen Fachbegriff – eine derartige „archäologische Geländebegehung” am Fundort
durchgeführt, deren Fundstücke durch die dank seiner Großzügigkeit für das Ungarische
Nationalmuseum verschenkten Fundstücke gekennzeichnet sind. Die Ausgrabung ist im
Auftrag und teils auf Kosten des Ungarischen Nationalmuseum, bzw. der Archäologischen
Kommission der Ungarischen Akademie durchgeführt worden. Das Fundmaterial wurde
auf dem VIII. Internationalen Kongress für prähistorische Anthropologie und Archäologie
im Jahre VafZ ausgestellt, anschließend ist es beim Ungarischen Nationalmuseum inventiert
und untergebracht. Ein bislang unbehobener Mangel entstand dennoch dadurch, dass der
Leiter der archäologischen Ausgrabung seine Ausgrabungsergebnisse nicht veröff entlicht hat,
obwohl er damals einschlägige Schriften in Fachzeitschriften platziert hatte. Aufgrund des
von Anton Horváth freigelegten, aus verschiedenen Zeitaltern stammenden Fundmaterials
hat Josef Hampel bereits VaaZ festgestellt, dass die Siedlung auf dem Makárberg durch längere
Zeit bewohnt sein konnte. Seine Feststellung konnte auch durch die spätere Forschung belegt
werden, und blieb bis heute gültig. Das von Anton Horváth ausgegrabene Fundmaterial –
obwohl die Fundumstände nicht genau bekannt sind – diente jahrzehntelang als Grundlage
für weitere Forschungen, und hat viel zum Verfeinern des wissenschaftlichen Bildes über
die tausendjährigen Siedlungsverhältnisse des Makárbergs beigetragen, und viele der von
ihm freigelegten Funde bilden bis heute Basis für weiteren wissenschaftlichen Diskurs.
Die prähistorischen Siedlungsfunde aus dem Makárberg befanden sich jahrzehntelang
in der archäologischen Ausstellung des Ungarischen Nationalmuseums, und trugen zur
Repräsentation der aus dem Komitat Baranya hergekommenen Funde auf nationaler Ebene bei.
Aufgrund der aus dem Fundmaterial ausgewählten zwei Fundtypen können die folgenden
Bemerkungen gemacht werden, die die derzeitige Feststellungen der Forschung über das
spätbronzezeitlichen Beziehungssystem und die Wirkung der Gegend bestätigen: Nach
gründlichem Studieren der Geweihtrensen und des vermuteten spätbronzezeitlichen Hortfunds
kann festgestellt werden, dass das Fundmaterial aus dem Makárberg in der Periode der jüngeren Urnenfelderkultur mit der Fundorte Tiszafüred, Kiskőszeg (Batina) und Celldömölk-Sághegy
vergleichbar ist, bzw. mit jenen Fundorten können überlappende Wechselwirkungen erfasst
werden. Beide Fundtypen sind unikal: keine genaue Parallele wurde für die Geweihtrensen
gefunden, während die einzigartige Bedeutung des Hortfunds (wenn dieser nicht auf der Kurd,
oder der Gyermely horizont datiert sein kann), darin besteht, dass solche Funde aus der Hallstatt
B Periode, d. h. aus der IV. und V. Phase der Urnenfelderkultur aus der Gegend nicht bekannt
wurden. Die hier erörterten spezifi schen Funde – die Geweihtrensen durch die Parallelen aus
Tiszafüred, der Bronze-Hortfund wegen der kettenartigen Ringe, die für Schalanke auch dienen
konnte, der Gussform des auf dieser Schalanke gehängte dreieckige Anhängers, und ein anderer
Gussform einer das „trako-kimmerische“ Styl folgenden Trense mit tropfenförmigen Ösen –
zeigen ebenso orientalische Einfl üsse, die ebenfalls bestätigen die derzeitige Feststellungen der
Forschung über dem spezifi schen, präskytischen Einfl üsse zeigenden Charakteristikum der
Umgebung von Pécs in der letzten Phase der Urnenfelderkultur.

Müller Florian Martin (Hrsg.), Archäologische Universitätsmuseen und –sammlungen im Spannungsfeld von Forschung, Lehre und Öffentlichkeit, SPECTANDA – Schriften des Archäologischen Museums Innsbruck 3 / Archäologie: Forschung und Wissenschaft 4 (Wien/Berlin/Münster 2013), 694 S.

Archäologische Universitätssammlungen finden sich heute zunehmend in einer Situation zwischen universitärem Alltag von Forschung und Lehre und den Ansprüchen, welche eine interessierte Öffentlichkeit an Museen, ihrer Präsentation und Vermittlungsangebote stellt. Im vorliegenden Band berichten Leiter und Kuratoren, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter und Projektmitarbeiter an archäologischen Universitätssammlungen, genauso aber auch Restauratoren, Kulturvermittler und Museumspädagogen und decken dabei eine große fachliche Breite an unterschiedlichen archäologischen Disziplinen ab (Klassische Archäologie, Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Ägyptologie, Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Christliche Archäologie, Etruskologie, Papyrologie und Epigraphik). Ziel ist es, erstmalig und aktuell sowohl einen umfassenden Überblick über die Geschichte dieser Institutionen zu bieten als auch im Sinne einer Standortbestimmung die Situation archäologischer Universitätssammlungen im deutschsprachigen Raum zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts im Spannungsfeld von Forschung, Lehre und Öffentlichkeit näher zu betrachten.

In 2011, a monograph long anticipated by art historians with an expertise in Old Russian and Byzantine art was published by Ljudmila Pekarska. The main subject of the monograph – the history of a hoard of jewellery found in Kiev in 1906, and as luck would have it is today divided between the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The author, however, did not limit her study to the analysis of objects from this hoard. She used an extensive amount of comparative materials from collections in many Western, Ukrainian, and Russian museums. L. Pekarska focuses mainly on the cloisonné enamels, an impressive example of exquisite medieval luxury. Welcoming
the publication of this book, and being interested in the research, as well as its author, I do not envy the hard work that it would take for a person to write a scholarly review on this publication. The book contains so many specific features, so many politicized statements, so many altered facts that an unprepared reader, and even a professional, will not always be able to understand these “sleights of hand”. For this reason, I chose only three pages from the book of Ljudmila Pekarska that discuss a collection of cloisonné enamels of Alexandr Zvenigorodsky and its fate
(now almost the entire collection is kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art). I hope that my article will help the reader in understanding the nuances of L. Pekarska’s book and, besides that, off ers the reader more detailed information about the unique collection of Zvenigorodsky and the reasons it is now in Western museums. In this article, the author includes biographical facts about Alexander Zvenigorodsky; it shines a light on the history of Zvenigorodsky’s ownership of the cloisonné enamels, and criminal origin of the collection taken from Georgian monasteries.
Also included is information on the publication of the collection by its owner – the famous book issued in three languages
in 200 copies each: in Russian, in German, and in French. The book has long since become a rare example of the highest quality of printing and refi ned luxury. A considerable attention is paid to the fate of the collection after the death of its owner; the reason it was secretly sold to John Pierpont Morgan; a negative role in this sale of the infamous collector Michail Botkin. A seemingly private matter about Zvenigorodsky’s collection of enamels has raised numerous problems of ethical, methodological, and, in some degree, even cultural and political nature.

Il contributo ricostruisce la storia del calco della Pietà vaticana di Michelangelo Buonarroti, realizzato nel 1975 all'interno dei laboratori dei Musei Vaticani come calco di seconda generazione, in un momento storico di grande revival dei calchi come protagonisti di una stagione di diplomazia culturale. Anche la storia del calco della Pietà Rondanini, acquisito dei Musei Vaticani solo nel 1999 e proveniente dalla Biblioteca Vaticana, è ricostruita per la prima volta in questa sede apportando interessanti novità sulla sua provenienza dalla collezione dello scultore Francesco Messina.

Exhibition catalogue "Treasures of the Citizens" Hannover: Museum August Kestner (12 September 2013 - 3 March 2014), object entries by C. E. Loeben in the chapter on the museum's friends' and sponsors' society "Antike & Gegenwart e.V." (p. 152-159).

The aim of this paper is to celebrate the Sicilian Canon Giuseppe Alessi, a very extraordinary even if not very well known personality. He was born in 1774 in Castrogiovanni (Enna) and died in Catania during cholera epidemic in 1837. He was a prominent intellectual living between the end of 17th and the beginning of 18th century. He had a lot of interests: mineralogy and archaeology, literature and history, law and science. Supporting his researches, in a long time he collected many various objects: minerals, fossils, insects, shells, books, antique prints, paintings and archaeological findings. According to the provisions of his will, the collection was sold to the Mother Church in Castrogiovanni (Enna) to become a museum and finally in 1862 it opened to the public in a building close to the church. There, together with the Barone Petroso collection, donated to the Mother Church in 1815, the Alessi collection became the main core of the first city museum, giving the name to the museum itself, thence called Museo Alessi. Despite of the collection artistic value, the museum close to the public in 2006 for management difficulties and today it’s still closed also for structural damage to the building.

На численних матеріалах архівів авторка досліджує історію насильницького вилучення наприкінці 20-х - на початку 30-х років 20 століття троьх "перлин" азійського зібрання Музею мистецтва ВУАН, які були подаровані місту Києві у складі цілої колекції засновниками музею Богданом та Варварою Ханенками.
Using archive materials the author explores the history of three "gems" of the Museum of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Asian art collection, that were granted to Kyiv community by the founders of the museum Bohdan and Varvara Khanenkos, and in 1920-1930-ies were forcibly removed from the Museum by Soviet authorities.

ABSTRAKT: In 1786, Stanisław Kostka Potocki and Izabela [Elżbieta] Lubomirska
stayed in the Kingdom of Naples, where Potocki conducted archaeological
excavations in the town of Nola. This city, which in the past lied under the jurisdiction
of Władysław IV Vasa, in the 18th century was well known to the inhabitants
of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth not only from historical sources, but also
as the destination of increasing number of expeditions in search of valuable Attic
vases.
Stanisław Kostka Potocki travelled to Nola from Naples. The short journey and first
impressions of both the landscape and the ruins noticed on the site were described
in accordance with the contemporary travel literature convention in his – unfinished
– handwritten travel journal Voyage de Nola.
Potocki’s disappointment with the view of the modern city of Nola, which has only
retained some of its former glory, is comparable to the experience of other European
aristocrats visiting Italian cities at the time, including Anna Potocka, Stanisław
Kostka’s daughter-in-law. The article presents the importance of Nola as an archaeological
site in the period in question, and, above all, outlines the background
of Potocki’s visit and the factors that made up his complex assessment of the city.

Wisdom protectors, art, loot, political opponents, ‘curios’, gifts of diplomacy, improvised artillery shields, chopping boards and even a mantelpiece - Tibetan book-covers have meant and become many things to many people.

Tibet’s intricately carved wooden book-covers were made to protect the loose-leaved texts housed in the country’s monasteries and aristocratic estates. Yet in 1904, during the eponymously named Younghusband Mission to Lhasa, officers of the British India government’s punitive expedition would rip the covers from their intended roles and ideologically and materially make them into other things. The book-covers would become Tibetan art and material forms of colonial knowledge. They were separated from the texts they could no longer protect and would instead be bracketed to walls in imperial museums and colonial homes.

This paper will discuss the many transitions Tibetan book-covers have made in the hands of imperial powers (and also contemporary Tibetan artists). However, its main focus will fall on a group of book-covers that were transformed for a colonial officer’s study. Made into a mantelpiece to hold and display other Tibetan things, the book-covers collectively offered a domestic imagining of the aesthetic and cultural sensibilities of a Himalayan Other. I will argue that the book-covers became the axis mundi, the sanctum sanctorum in a colonial officer’s remaking of a powerful religious place in Tibet. This was a very different type of power place made in a Himalayan contact zone: one where the shrine for a Buddhist being was replaced by a colonial officer and his mantelpiece.

The Museo di Storia Naturale of Florence University was established as ‘Imperiale e Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale’ by Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine. This separated the items of scientific interest from the ancient Medicis collections. Opened to the public in 1775, it is owadays divided into six sections. Only the zoological one is still in its original building, called ‘La Specola’.
Presently the bird collection includes more than 20,000 dry specimens, 1000 eggs and nests, about 2500 osteological samples and hundreds of birds preserved in spirits. More than half of the birds, both wet and dry, come from outside Europe, while exotic osteological samples and eggs number only a few hundred and a few dozen, respectively. There are several extinct birds, including Fregilupus varius, Nestor productus and the mounted skeleton of Dromaius ater from the Baudin expedition.
Some birds, including exotic ones, date to the 18th century, but during the first half of the following century the collections increased significantly. Carlo Passerini, curator between 1820 and 1857, acquired many exotic birds thanks to his connections with the most important ornithologists of the time. In 1869-1909 Director Enrico Hillyer Giglioli, in addition to gathering the most important and complete collection of Italian birds, devoted himself to the acquisition of worldwide specimens from other institutions. He obtained more or less complete series from the Italian explorations (scientific voyages of the ‘Magenta’ and ‘Vettor Pisani’ corvettes; collecting expeditions by Luigi Maria D’Albertis, Odoardo Beccari, Elio Modigliani, Lamberto Loria, Orazio Antinori and others). Giglioli was also responsible for the richness of the collections from Oceania, which include many rarities and extinct taxa.
The expedition to British Guyana by Nello Beccari (1931-1932) yielded nice series, while, between 1959 and 1985, numerous biological missions to Somalia resulted in one of the most important collections from that country.

Exhibition catalogue "Treasures of the Citizens" Hannover: Museum August Kestner (12 September 2013 - 3 March 2014), chapter and object entires by C. E. Loeben in "Anhang: Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung / Fritz-Behrens-Stiftung" (p. 203-207).

This paper presents the life of an intellectual from a provincial town of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who, despite the financial risks, sacrificed his carrier as a lawyer and dedicated his life to save the material heritage of Baranya county. By collecting the archaeological finds of the region, he established a rich private collection which later constituted the basis of the City Museum from Pécs. Beside his activity as an antiquarian collector, he also participated personally in excavations, although our sources regarding his field-work are very limited. Even if he was aware of the limits of his archaeological knowledge, he published the first comprehensive synthesis on the archaeology of Baranya and Pécs. Juhász published regularly in the Archaeological Bulletin (Archaeológiai Értesitő) and local journals as well. Due to his popularizing articles, he became a local “authority” in Pécs, the “archaeologist of the city”, asked many times to assist rescue excavations. Unfortunately, the most renowned archaeologists from Hungary never accepted him as an academic researcher. Six years before the City Museum was founded, he opened his private collection for the greater public. His donation of 6800 objects–among them a significant numismatic collection–constitute the basic of the local City Museum. Despite of his founding role in the local archaeological research, his name was mentioned only in a short Encyclopedia entry. Because there was no official testimony left from him, the analysis of his life and academic heritage can only be based on indirect sources from archives. The main aim of this paper is to fill the lacuna left by former historiography and to commemorate, at the same time, the 175th year of his birth.

Marginals from Museum Collections. Relief Maps by Georg Wiesner as a Source of Learning aboutthe Topography of Opava, Helfštýn Castle and Brno in the 1820s.
The study discusses three relief models of towns and landscape sections
created by the Catholic priest, Georg Wiesner. The relief model of the town of Opava and its surroundings is known today only from a photograph; the relief model of Helfštýn Castle and its surroundings has been preserved in a fragmental form; only the Brno relief model has been preserved in a relatively intact form. The then contemporary relief model of Vienna by the same creator is known only from literature. In addition to the relatively detailed elaboration of these models, the early period of origin of these artifacts is particularly interesting, which, at least in the context of the Czech lands, ranks them among the extremely early examples of a given type of cartographic source. Their informative value is enhanced by the fact that in the case of the town of Opava and Helfštýn Castle, these models from the early 1820s precede the oldest map sources of the localities processed using modern surveying methods. Evidence of the urban scheme, land plotting, the state of fortifications or major roads in the documented towns and villages is especially valuable. In the case of the Brno model, the recording of the urban landscape’s material structure, i.e., of the number of floors, the layout of window and entrance openings or roof shapes of the depicted buildings, is also treasured since this type of information can only be deduced to a limited extent from other available cartographic sources for the given area.

Het Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerpen is een huis vol kunst. Kunst die verwondert, intrigeert en ontroert. Het museum is vandaag internationaal bekend als de thuishaven van de befaamde Dulle Griet van Pieter Bruegel de Oude. Voor trouwe bezoekers is het vooral een goed bewaard geheim. Steeds opnieuw is er de verbazing over hoe zoveel moois op één plaats kon worden samengebracht. Wie heeft dit alles verzameld? Hoe en waarom is dit museum ontstaan?

Het museum is een monument dat herinnert aan twee personen, Henriëtte Mayer van den Bergh (1838−1920) en Fritz Mayer van den Bergh (1858−1901). De hele collectie werd bijeengebracht door Fritz, een man met een uitgesproken belangstelling voor de middeleeuwen en de renaissance. Na Fritz’ vroegtijdige en onverwachte overlijden was het zijn moeder Henriëtte die het gebouw voor zijn kunstwerken liet optrekken. Zo slaagde ze erin deze uitzonderlijke collectie te bewaren en de herinnering aan haar zoon levend te houden.

Dit boek duikt in de wereld van verzamelaars, antiquairs, kunsthistorici en museumstichters van de belle époque. Gebaseerd op diepgaand archiefonderzoek vertelt Ulrike Müller het verhaal van het Museum Mayer van den Bergh en zijn grondleggers: hun familiale achtergrond en hun internationale netwerk, hun passies en hun modus operandi.

Müller Florian Martin, Das Archäologische Museum Innsbruck – Sammlung von Abgüssen und Originalen der Universität Innsbruck, Sammeln – Bewahren – Forschen – Vermitteln 2014, in: Baur Christoph (Hrsg.), Ausgraben – Dokumentieren – Präsentieren. Jahresbericht des Instituts für Archäologien 2014 (Innsbruck 2015), 24-25.

Reviewing the famous golden coins of the Egyptian Pharaoh Nectanebos II (Dynasty 30, 360-343 BC) with the hieroglyphic inscription "Perfect Gold" on one side and a jumping horse on the other. Observed was that the horse has a leash and thus is no wild horse. The horse on a gold coin was interpretated in the tradition of Punic gold coins with horses, appearently well-distributed in the ancient Mediterranean world and thus well-familiar to be chosen by the minters in Memphis to create the only coin of Pharaonic Egypt.
(in German)
p. 80: "Zusammenfassend kann resümiert werden, dass m. E. der „Nebu-nefer-MünzDesigner“ von Nektanebos II. im ägyptischen Memphis das Pferd für den Avers seiner zu gestaltenden Münze allein aus dem Grund des damaligen großen Bekanntheitsgrades von Goldmünzen mit Pferdedarstellungen im östlichen Mittelmeer und Nordafrika gewählt hat und damit dem völlig neuartigen Revers mit exotischen Hieroglyphen einfach ein geläufiges, allseits bekanntes Motiv auf dem Avers entgegensetzen wollte."

Article on eye doctor and future art collector Antonio Anastacio Gonçalves and his annotated copy of post-WWI besteseller memoir of the trenches  by André Brun 'Malta das Trincheiras'. His annotations not only display his command of the different realities of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps while in France, they also constitute the main documental insight into the collector's views and opinions.

Müller Florian Martin, Das Archäologische Museum Innsbruck bei Großveranstaltungen – Ein Scharnier zwischen Universität und Öffentlichkeit, in: Hoernes Matthias, Kistler Erich, Reinstadler-Rettenbacher Katharina (Hrsg.), ATRIUM. Perspektive Zentrum für Alte Kulturen 1, 2012–2013. Aktuelle Forschungen des Zentrums für Alte Kulturen 2012-2013 (Innsbruck 2014) 15–24.

The paper presents a previously undocumented group of 22 lithics held at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, which were recently identified as provenanced from the Mesolithic site of Smelroren in Norway. Their provenance is attested by a handwritten paper label that accompanied the assemblage, and further substantiated by three of these pieces presented in the 1936 publication of Smelroren. Archival testimonies allow one to tentatively formulate the hypothesis that these artefacts were possibly expatriated from Norway under unknown circumstances and transferred to Crete in 1941 by the Austrian archaeologist August Schörgendorfer, who was assigned with the safekeeping of cultural heritage in the occupied island. The main aim of the paper is to explore the historical background of this orphaned collection, as this is so far the only known case whereby an officer of the ‘Art Protection’ unit (Kunstschutz) of the Wehrmacht introduced foreign archaeological objects into a Greek archaeological instituition. Moreover, I examine the shifting agency of this Smelroren collection as a result of its mobility, after Schörgendorfer donated the lithics to Heraklion Museum. The discussion is framed by consideration of the changing meanings regarding another displaced collection of Cretan pottery sherds, which the archaeologist loaned to the University of Graz. It is suggested that the two collections be ultimately perceived as assemblages of affective memory objects, with the intent to engage public opinion on the interaction between archaeology and politics as well as to contribute to memory negotiation of World War II microhistories in the twenty‐first century. 

Appendix: Catalogue of the three published Smellroren lithics of the Heraklion Archaeological Museum collection, by Don Evely and Nena Galanidou)

RIASSUNTO L'origine del collezionismo erpetologico risale alla nascita delle raccolte di naturalia, come testimonia la presenza di rettili e anfibi nelle raffigurazioni e nei cataloghi delle Wunderkammern rinascimentali. L'interesse per la con-servazione di questi animali era dovuto al loro impiego nella farmacopea del tempo e alla loro facilità di conser-vazione rispetto ad altri animali. In origine le spoglie erpetologiche erano preservate solo mediante il semplice disseccamento o attraverso rudi-mentali procedimenti tassidermici. Nella seconda metà del XVII secolo l'introduzione del metodo di preserva-zione in alcol offrì la possibilità di conservare un numero molto più elevato di esemplari, peraltro non vulnerabili all'attacco degli insetti infestanti dei musei. L'epoca d'oro del collezionismo erpetologico nel nostro Paese si ebbe negli anni che seguirono l'Unità d'Italia, grazie ai numerosi viaggi di esplorazione scientifica condotti in vari continenti e al crescente interesse per gli studi di corologia e zoogeografia. Più o meno negli stessi anni il maggior interesse per lo studio della fauna nazionale e di quelle regionali e provinciali, determinò sia l'intensificazione delle attività di raccolta sia l'evoluzione delle mo-dalità di gestione delle informazioni relative agli esemplari che fino ad allora erano accompagnati dalla sola de-terminazione specifica e, talvolta, dalla generica indicazione del suo areale di diffusione. Dopo il primo conflitto mondiale le attività di raccolta erpetologica rallentarono molto ed ebbe inizio, nella quasi totalità delle istituzioni, un lungo periodo di stagnazione, rotto soltanto dall'arrivo dei materiali raccolti nelle mis-sioni coloniali del ventennio. A partire dagli anni Ottanta, con la rapida crescente ripresa degli studi erpetologici, spesso promossi da operatori di musei, le collezioni sono tornate a riprendere vita e a riappropriarsi del loro ruolo. Parole chiave: collezionismo erpetologico, storia dell'erpetologia, criteri collezionistici.

ABSTRACT The origin of herpetological collecting dates back to the birth of the naturalia collections, as can be seen by the presence of reptiles and amphibians in the portrayals and catalogues of the renaissance Wunderkammern. The interest in preserving these animals was due to their use in the pharmacopoeia of the time and how easily they could be preserved compared to animals of other classes. Herpetological remains were originally preserved by simple drying or through rudimentary taxidermic procedures. In the second half of the 17th century the introduction of the method of preservation in alcohol offered the possibility of preserving a much higher number of specimens, which made them resistant to being attacked by museum pests. The golden era of herpetological collecting in Italy occurred during the years following the Unification of the country, thanks to the numerous scientific expedition carried out in various continents and an increasing interest in chorology and zoogeography around the same time the growing interest in the study of national and some regional and provincial fauna led to an intensification of collecting activities and the development of collection methods and management of information about the samples which, up to then, had been accompanied by a specific identification only and, sometimes, a general indication of their area of distribution. After the first world war, herpetological collecting decreased and a long period of stagnation began in almost all the Italian institutions, interrupted only by the material collected during the colonial missions in the Fascist period. From the 1980s, with the rapid recovery of herpetological studies, often promoted by museum operators, the collections revived and they regained their essential role.

Based on the Royal Ontario Museum exhibition, "Canada Collects: Treasures from Across the Nation," this companion volume celebrates the art of collecting in Canada. More than seventy objects on loan from some fifty Canadian institutional and private collections are featured, from an original historic map and manuscript to contemporary paintings and sculptures.

"Canada Collects" underlines the fraternity among great museums and individual collectors as well as Canadians’ sophisticated interest in cultures of other places. In addition to the many international artifacts selected, "Canada Collects" exhibits some of the most iconic artifacts of Canada, including a 1709 Hudson’s Bay Company map; Lucy Maud Montgomery’s original manuscript for "Anne of Green Gables" (1905); Walter S. Allward’s powerful maguette, "Justice" (c. 1925–1930) for the Vimy Ridge Memorial; artifacts from the fabled Avo Arrow aircraft (1958); the first Canadian maple leaf flag (1965); a gold Dogfish Brooch (c. 1959) by Haida artist Bill Reid; a Chromogenic transparency titled "Bad Goods" (1984) by Jeff Wall; Tim Whiten’s cast glass, "Dwelling #5" (1991); and Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s birchbark canoe (1968).

Né en 1927 de l’association des collections d’oeuvres d’art et d’objets
napoléoniens des frères Giuseppe et Luigi Primoli, le Museo Napoleonico de
Rome a connu une histoire riche et mouvementée, au fil des agrandissements
de ses locaux, de l’accroissement de sa collection, ainsi que des changements de
directions. Alors qu’il était prévu qu’il devienne un musée spécialement consacré
à la vie privée des Bonaparte ayant vécu à Rome, il a été utilisé comme outil
de propagande par le régime fasciste qui voyait en cette institution le moyen
d’affirmer la grandeur de l’Italie. Puis, il a connu une baisse d’intérêt, avant de
se moderniser et d’être considéré comme un musée historico-artistique. Ainsi, il
s’est, peu à peu, éloigné de la définition habituelle d’un musée de collectionneur.

Müller Florian Martin, Das Archäologische Museum Innsbruck - Sammlung von Abgüssen
und Originalen der Universität: Sammeln - Bewahren - Forschen – Vermitteln, in: Zentrum für Alte Kulturen (Hrsg.), Jahresbericht 2009. Geschichte und Altorientalistik, Archäologien, Gräzistik und Latinistik, Archäologisches Museum, Fachbibliothek Atrium (Innsbruck 2010) 87-89.

The Mind in the Matter: New Approaches to the Psychology of Collecting Psychology informs us about what drives an individual to collect. In the Enlightenment, the human mind was often analysed and discussed by means of metaphors and analogies borrowed from the world of collecting. In the nineteenth-century, the stereotypes surrounding the monomaniac, eccentric or perverse collector was codified in the art press and through fiction. In the twentieth century, the topic was treated at length by scholars such as Werner Munsterberger, often working in an explicitly psychoanalytic framework. Whilst this Freudian approach has been subject to intense criticism in the past thirty years, many scholars continue to interpret collecting in terms of categories such as ‘lack’, ‘surrogacy’, ‘desire’ and ‘loss’.

Müller Florian Martin, Das Archäologische Museum Innsbruck - Sammlung von Abgüssen und Originalen der Universität: Sammeln - Bewahren - Forschen - Vermitteln, in: Zentrum für Alte Kulturen (Hrsg.), Jahresbericht 2010. Aktuelle Forschungen (Innsbruck 2011) 51-53.