The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

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Journal des Voyages

Secondary Title (i.e. Proceedings Title): Periodical Title: Publication Type: Authors:Monconys,Balthasar de Editors: Publisher:Horace Boissat & George Remevs Place of Publication:Lyon Publication Date:1665-1666 Alternate Date (i.e. Conference Date): Volume: Issue: Start Page: End Page: Abstract: Descriptors/Keywords: ISBN: URL:
Documents in Print Item: No Documents Listed in Print Item Attached People: Author (in assoc. with a ms or print source) - Monconys, Balthasar de (1611-1665)
Institutional repository - Oxford Anatomy School (-)
 Location(s): Housed collection or remnant at - Oxford Anatomy School (Institution) -> Schools Quadrangle (Building (non-institution))
 Bibliographic Source(s): Early Science in Oxford. Vol. 3..., page: 254, notes:
Items Which List This As A Bibliographic Source: None Images Contained: No Images Attached To This Item
 Objects Contained: No Objects Attached To This Item
 Annotation:Contains a description of Monconys' visit to the collection of the Anatomical School in Oxford, 11 June 1663 (2: 52).



Gunther quotes:


"On another side [of the Bodleian quadrangle] is a room for dissection, where there are several sorts of animals, fishes, birds and other curiosities; but there was nothing that I had not seen in thousands of places. There is a skin of a man, and one of a woman, and they show a small cube of wood, in which, though no joint is perceptible, there is a thick copper ring, without sign of soldering, passed through the middle of one of the faces.' Then, after alluding to two collections of coins, he continues : 'In a small room they showed us a skin robe of many colours, so they have to say that it was Joseph's. And there too we saw a black marble in the middle of which was a lizard, formed so perfectly that it appears to be petrified : but I believe it to be merely a lusus naturae, that has shaped the animal in white marble, unless it be a drawing "par une filament". It is of a different substance, at least of a different colour, and it is marked by streaks a little less dark than the body of the beast, which is grey."


Gunther adds, "Monconys might also have been shown the new skeleton which had just been made and paid for out of the Vice-Chancellor's account" (Gunther 3: 254).