Curiosity Cabinet of Ole Worm

This frontispiece by Ole Worm titled Ole Worm’s Cabinet of Wonder: Natural Specimens and Wondrous Monsters is an engraving depicting various animal taxidermy, shells, and many other oddities. The piece was finished in 1655 and printed by G Wingendrop.

Description

Ole Worm’s Cabinet of Wonder: Natural Specimens and Wondrous Monsters
Artist	Olaus Wormius
Year	1655
Type	Print engraving
Medium	Paper
Dimensions	27.8 cm × 35.8 cm (10.9 in × 14.1 in)

At the bottom center of this frontispiece is a tablet containing the title and publication information for the volume printed on shells and bones. The title is situated within a room containing curiosities collected by Ole Worm in Copenhagen. The room includes items such as taxidermy, weapons, and unlabeled barrels. The assortment of the items in the piece points to the works title- Ole Worm's Cabinet of Wonder: Natural Specimens and Wondrous Monsters, as they are mostly natural specimens. This print displays a method of scientific inquiry called ‘proto-empiricism', a type of study of specific items grounded in sensory experience. Items in the collection are objects of scientific inquiry that allow viewers to dive deeper into the wonder and mystery of the cabinet through said proto-empiricism. The human-like figure in the center right of the image is a humanoid automaton, a mechanical imitation of a human. When it was operated by a hidden wheel, it could move around the room in a circle and pick up objects. The figure is dressed in what was thought to be Native gear, possibly Inuit, and appears to be holding what could be a spear. This piece contains objects that can be divided into four categories: minerals, plants, animals and artificialia (man-made objects). The categories go in ascending order from “lowest” form of life, minerals, to “highest” form of life, animals, with the fourth category, artificialia, existing outside that context of the three kingdoms of nature. This division of categories gives visual order to the art work.

The last visual aspect that draws in the eye isn't an item within the room, but rather the room itself. The large light bringing windows offer a visual contrast to the dark wood and shadow filled interior of the room. The slated appearance of the ceiling and shelves also offers a break in the visual continuity of the piece.

Artist info

Main article: Ole Worm

Ole Worm was born in Arhus, Denmark, in the same town where his father served as mayor.  He went to school to become a physician and polymath and later went on a self termed “grand tour” of Europe where he spent much time visiting museums and collections. It is believed that this sparked his interest in art and more specifically, science as art. During this same time, Worm began collecting items that he found interesting. He formed his own collection, which he later combined with various other European collectors. Worm gathered a wide range of different types of artifacts from the natural world such as bones, rocks and minerals, and stuffed animals and birds, together with man-made artefacts and antiquities, including Roman jewellery, tools and scientific instruments. This phase of collecting is what initiated his passion that developed into his curiosity and publication: Natural Specimens and Wondrous Monsters. Worm was working during a period of enthusiasm for gathering objects that one found and forming a collection. This collection was intended to provoke both curiosity and wonder at God's creation and man's ingenuity. They would sometimes include works of virtuoso, artistry, and craftsmanship, strange natural phenomena, and rarities from around the world. It is not hard to see how the collection of items in his frontispiece invokes said curiosity and wonder. The long series of events in his life led to him becoming a professor of humanities at the University of Copenhagen, and later, professor of medicine in 1642. He also served as the personal physician to King Christian IV of Denmark. In 1644, Worm received a letter from August Buchner from Wittenberg. His eulogizing of Worm's virtue and fame describes how numerous European countries marvel at Worm and count him among those who, in addition to the pursuit of other great arts, have won immortality for themselves through the study of antiquities and the finer sciences. The final years of his life were spent teaching and tutoring in the subjects he loved, but eventually he caught the plague during the epidemic of 1654 and died in Copenhagen that same year.

Impact of the work

Worm has been described as straddling the border between modern and pre-modern science. In the seventeenth century the modern, empirical approach to scientific enquiry was still being developed and Worm’s periodic adoption of this approach to his studies had both social and scientific significance. He exceeded the scientific standards of his time with his collection and the ways in which he separated his findings into four distinct categories. This were some of the first steps towards the modern, empirical scientific approach. Empiricism is the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science, it developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, expounded in particular by John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume.