| Collecting seems to be a topic, which has become more and more interesting during the last years. It is not only the passion that seizes people of all parts of our society, it is more than some sort of eccentricity, it goes back to our roots, when we were hunters and gatherers to gain our living. Nowadays hunters and gatherers can be found in antique shops, but they are also to be found in museums and libraries. Collecting in museums has started with ‘Cabinets of curiosities’ (‘Kunst- und Wunderkammern’), which housed “wonders” ranging from rare shells and coins to narwhal horns, coral carvings and perhaps mummified mermaids. Libraries always collected not only the scientific books of their times, they always strove for the bigger, wider, the universal... |
