Under the sign

by Stephen Bann

Under the Sign: John Bargrave as Collector, Traveler, and Witness is a cultural history that combines some of the most vital questions in the history of art, the history of science, intellectual history, and the new discipline of museology. The "Cabinet of Curiosities," an early modern phenomenon some historians view as the forerunner of the modern museum, has evinced considerable interest in recent years. Increasing attention has also been paid to the history of travel and its documentation. The collector John Bargrave (1610-80) holds a unique position at the intersection of these two areas of cultural practice, yet this is the first in-depth study of his life, and it is the first to assess his significance for contemporary cultural studies. Stephen Bann seeks not only to investigate the life and philosophy of an individual collector but to elaborate a genealogy of collecting that sheds new insights on the practice in its variable historical forms. John Bargrave's collection of "curio