ing. Not the least prominent object of the museum is an obelisk, made in the Egyptian fashion, to celebrate the memory of the conversion of the Swedish Queen Christina, the daughter of the most prominent king in the Thirty Years’ War, Gustavus Adolphus, the fact of the conversion being expressed on the obelisk in thirty-three different languages.
Just at this time a curious historical essay on the origin and development of museums, and the best arrangement of them, was published, the author of which was probably a certain Major, and this very rare pamphlet, first published in 1674, has been reprinted later in Valentyn’s Museum Museorum. According to the fashion of the time the author begins with the enumeration of the different names for such exhibitions, and out of forty of these, seventeen are Greek. I think it would be rather hard to remember them all, and even tedious to hear them repeated. The number of collections from the time of King Solomon to the author’s time is computed to be one hundred and forty, twenty-two of which belonged to prominent princes; many of them are spoken of more in detail, but mixed with fabulous stories. The author believes it very probable that King Solomon possessed a collection, and is sure about King Hizkiah of Jerusalem, and Ptolomæus Philadelphus of Alexandria. He speaks about the museum of the Greek emperor in Constantinople, said to have contained the whole poetry of Homer written on the skin of a dragon, a fact which he concludes to be somewhat doubtful, as according to his calculation this skin must have been one hundred and twenty yards long.
At some length are given details about the collections of the Great Mogul in Agra, of the Inca in Peru, and of Montezuma in Mexico, the last two being real marvels of richness and value. All the animals, trees, and plants of the country were manufactured in pure gold or silver, in life size, and smaller ones in jewels, and placed in the gardens of the court. Montezuma is said to have possessed a zoölogical garden with all the living animals of the country, the ditches for marine animals being filled with salt water. Most of the facts given in this essay are partly exaggerated, partly erroneous; nevertheless some of the chapters, suggesting the best rules for arranging a museum, are quite interesting.
(To be concluded.)
