The John Bargrave Collection
Richard Garth ( - fl. 1589)
Richard Hakluyt describes Garth as a clerk of the "petty bags." Hakluyt visited Garth's cabinet of curiosities in the 1580s (Mancall, 156). In his preface to the reader of his Principal Navigations (1589), Hakluyt describes his experience of viewing Garth's cabinet:And whereas in the course of this history often mention is made of the many beastes, birds, fishes, serpents, plants, fruits, hearbes, rootes, apparell, armour, boates, and such other rare and strange curiosities, which wise men take great pleasure to reade of, but much more contentment to see: herein I my selfe to my singuler delight haue bene as it were rauished in beholding all the premisses gathered together with no small cost, and preserued with no litle diligence, in the excellent Cabinets of my very worthshipfull and learned friends M. Richard Garthe, one of the Clerkes of the pettie Bags, and M. William Cope Gentleman Vssier [Usher] to the right Honourable and most prudent Counseller (the Seneca of our common wealth,) the Lord Burleigh, high Treasourer of England.Ironically, Hakluyt misidentifies Walter Cope as "William."
He is identified in a list of collectors compiled by Emanuel Mendes da Costa, in a subsection of English collectors cited by Charles l'Écluse in his Exoticorum libri decem (205). Roles: Collector (minor)
People linked to person: Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552 or 1553-23 Nov 1616) was a visitor to the collection of Richard Garth