To Have and to Hold

by Blom, Philipp

• ISBN13: 9781585675616
• ISBN10: 158567561X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-01
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Summary

A history of the human drive to collect things considers how various objects carry meanings of significance to their collectors, tracing popular items of pursuit during the Renaissance and other eras while discussing the themes underlying collecting behaviors. Reprint.

Author Biography

Philipp Blom was born in Hamburg in 1970. After studying in Vienna and Oxford, he worked in publishing as a journalist and translator in London and in Paris, where he now lives

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Acknowledgements	xiii
Three Old Men	3	(10)
Part I: A Parliament of Monsters
The Dragon and the Tartar Lamb	13	(14)
A Melancholy Ailment	27	(23)
An Ark Abducted	50	(10)
The Exquisite Art of Dr Ruysch	60	(17)
Part II: A Complete History of Butterflies
This Curious Old Gentleman	77	(15)
The Mastodon and the Taxonomy of Memory	92	(6)
Angelus Novus	98	(11)
The Greatness of Empires	109	(15)
An Elevator to the Heavens	124	(15)
Part III: Incantations
Why Boiling People is Wrong	139	(19)
Three Flying Ducks	158	(11)
Anglers and Utopias	169	(7)
A Theatre of Memories	176	(21)
Part IV: The Tower of Fools
A Veritable Vello-Maniac	197	(15)
Leporello and His Master	212	(8)
Mr Soane is Not at Home	220	(12)
Epilogue: Plastic Cups and Mausoleums	232	(5)
Notes	237	(19)
Bibliography	256	(9)
Index	265