Collecting the World: Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum

556 Pages·2017·18.719 MB·English

by  James Delbourgo

Collecting the World

Ja mes Delbourgo
Collecting the World
Hans Sloane and the Origins of the
British Museum
the belknap press of
harvard university press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
2017
Copyright © James Delbourgo, 2017
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First published in the United Kingdom as Collecting the World:
The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane in 2017 by
Penguin Books Ltd., London
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Typeset by Jouve (UK), Milton Keynes.
Set in 10.2/13.87 pt Sabon LT Std
First Harvard University Press edition, 2017
First Printing
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is
available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-674-73733-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
To
Rosella Maria Properzi
and
Laura Leonora Kopp

That a treasure like to this never was amass’d together, is
beyond a doubt: all that is call’d great in its kind in the whole
world becomes contemptible in the comparison; nor can we
imagine that such an one ever can be compil’d again, unless
such another almost miraculous combination of causes should
appear to give it origin.
Zachary Pearce, Eulogy to Hans Sloane, 1753
Perhaps the most deeply hidden motive of the person who col-
lects can be described this way: he takes up the struggle against
dispersion.
Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project (1927-40)

Contents
List of Illustrations xi
List of Maps xv
Note on Conventions xvii
Introduction: The Original Sloane Ranger xix
PART ONE
Empire of Curiosities
1 Transplantation 3
2 Island of Curiosities 37
3 Keeping the Species from Being Lost 87
PART TWO
Assembling the World
4 Becoming Hans Sloane 141
5 The World Comes to Bloomsbury 202
6 Putting the World in Order 258
7 Creating the Public’s Museum 303
Acknowledgements 343
Notes 349
Bibliography 425
Index 473