The Digital Ark :: Philipp Julius

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

Philipp Julius, Duke of Pomerania (27 Dec 1584 - 6 Feb 1625)

Educated at the University of Leipzig and afterwards travelled, visiting courts in England, France, and Italy. Upon reaching the age of majority, he assumed his position as a duke on 21 July 1604. He continued his travels, visiting England, the Dutch Republic, Denmark, Berlin, Danzig, Courland, and other locations. Other biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Julius,_Duke_of_Pomerania Visitor
Relevant locations: Educated at University of Leipzig, Leipzig
Title (royalty or holy order) Pomerania, Poland
Title (royalty or holy order) Szczecin
Title (royalty or holy order) Pomerania, Germany
Visited Germany, Europe
Visited England, Europe
Visited Denmark, Europe
Visited Netherlands, Europe
Relationships: Philipp Julius was a visitor to the collection of Walter Cope (c.1553-30 Jul 1614)

Frederic Gerschow (1568-1635) was a travelling companion of Philipp Julius
Kopf (-) was a guide Philipp Julius
Linked print sources: as Subject of/in a document - Diary of the Journey of Philip Julius, Duke of Stettin-Pomerania, through England in the year 1602.
References in Documents:

Frederic Gerschow's diary of Philip Julius's visit to Cope's Museum (1602)

[Diary Excerpt]

18th.—On the 18th, his princely Grace having heard of a museum arranged by a gentleman, Master Kopf, we drove there and found a great many wonderful objects, as various Julius00010" type="objectGroup">arms and Julius00020" type="objectGroup">weapons used in India orientali.

Julius00030" type="objectGroup">Some crowns worn by the Queen in America, Julius00040" type="objectGroup">a number of shields and Julius00050" type="objectGroup">swords. Julius00060" type="object">A dagger entirely made of steel had Julius00070" type="object">a scabbard made wholly of black lac or Spanish wax.

Further, Julius00080" type="objectGroup">two teeth of the sea-horse, Julius00090" type="object">the horn of a rhinoceros, was not long but bent upwards, Julius00100" type="object">also the tail with very coarse hair.

Julius00110" type="objectGroup">Many strange worms, Julius00120" type="objectGroup">birds, and Julius00130" type="objectGroup">fishes, Julius00140" type="object">a salamander scolopendra, Julius00150" type="object">a little Indian bird phosphorescent by night; Julius00160" type="object">the celebrated little fish, Remoram, had scales almost square like a stone perch, a head like an eel-pout; also Julius00170" type="object">a cauda Delphini, and Julius00180" type="object">a mummy.

We further saw many Indian Julius00190" type="objectGroup">manuscripts and Julius00200" type="objectGroup">books, Julius00210" type="object">a passport given by the King of Peru to the English, neatly written on wood, Julius00220" type="objectGroup">various strange cucumber plants.

Julius00230" type="object">The musical instrument celebrated in ancient times, and called cymbalum, was round like a globe of brass or steel; when touched it gave forth a sound like a triangle, but it is not now known how it was used in early times.

This gentleman also spends a good deal on Julius00240" type="objectGroup">artistic paintings; some of them had cost not less than fifty or eighty crowns. Thence we went to The Children's Comoediam, the argument treated of a castam viduam, and was the story of a royal widow of England.

The origin of this Children's Comoediam is this: the Queen keeps a number of young boys who have to apply themselves zealously to the art of singing and to learn all the various musical instruments, and to pursue their studies at the same time. These boys have special praeceptores in all the different arts, especially very good musicos.

And in order that they may acquire courteous manners, they are required to act a play once a week, for which purpose the Queen has erected for them a special theatrum with an abundance of costly garments. Those who wish to see one of their performances must give as much as eight shillings of our [Stralsund] money, but there are always a good many people present, many respectable women as well, because useful argumenta, and many good doctrines, as we were told, are brought forward there. They do all their plays by [artificial] light, which produces a great effect. For a whole hour before [the beginning of the play] a delightful performance of musicam instrumentalem is given on organs, lutes, pandores, mandolines, violins, and flutes; and a boy's singing cum voce tremula in a double-bass so tunefully, that we have not heard the like of it on the whole journey, except perhaps the nuns in Milan did it better.