26 ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS.
Ashmolean Society, the author says "It is agreed on by all our
antiquaries that the Tradescant collection, which was the
foundation of the Ashmolean Museum, was the earliest exhibited
in Britain."29
On the Continent, however, there were collections of no mean
importance a hundred years earlier. A printed catalogue exists,
for instance, of the Kentmann Cabinet, dated 1565. Johann
Kentmann was a physician, who lived at one time at Torgau in
Saxony, and afterwards at Dresden. The doctor had collected
about 1,600 specimens, chiefly minerals and fossils, with a few
shells, corals, and other marine objects, and preserved his collec-
tion in an ark or cabinet, of 13 double drawers, figured in the
catalogue. This catalogue was published by the doctor's good
friend Gesner, in a volume which contains also a number of
scientific essays, including a treatise on precious stones and other
minerals.30
Conrad Gesner, who has been styled "The German Pliny,"
seems to have been one of the most remarkable men the
world has ever seen. At one time he was professor of the
Greek language, at another time professor of medicine, and
again we hear of his holding a chair of philosophy. His industry
was prodigious, for though he died before he was fifty years
of age (b. 1516, d. 1565) he left a vast number of works relating
to most diverse subjects. Every branch of natural history
secured his sympathy, and he formed a collection much larger
and more important than Kentmann's, though I am not aware
that a catalogue of it is included in his writings. To
accommodate this collection he built at Zurich a Museum
surrounded by a botanic garden. It is related that knowing his
end was approaching he had a couch placed in his Museum and
was carried thither, so that he might expire in the midst
of those objects to which he was so devoted. It is with good
reason that Gesner has been called the "Father of Natural
History Museums."31 His collection passed, on his death,-
to his friend Felix Plater, a doctor in Basle,32 who possessed a
notable collection.
29 A Catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford : 1836.
30 De Omni Rerum Fossilmm Genere, Gemmis, Lapidibus, Metallis et hujusmodi, Libri
aliquot, plurique nunc primum editi. Opera Conradi Gesneri. Tiguri : MDLXV.
31 Presidential Address by Rev. Henry H Higgins, M.A. Report Museums Assoc,
Liverpool Meeting, 1890.
32 Conrad Gesner : Ein Beytrag zur Geschichte des Wissenschaftlichen Strebens und der
Glaubensverbesserung im 16 ten Jahrhundert. By Johannes Hanhart. Winterthur: 1824. p. 270.