The scientifi c revolution and the world of collections of the XVII century

The world of 17th century collections is quite extravagant and diverse and has attracted the attention of researchers as far back as in the second half of the 19th century. However, during the past few decades, interest in these collections has grown considerably, and this article seeks to explore this phenomenon. Many of these collections were quite comprehensive, with natural science materials and tools making up most of them. Some researchers believe that these collections have considerably more common features with their predecessors from the 16th century, such as their diversity, a focus on exclusive and unusual pieces, and the activities of the collectors themselves, which were often far from what would be considered scientifi c research today. At the same time, the innovative nature of 17th century collections are increasingly confi rmed in modern works. The focus  is on expanding the wealth of knowledge gained by studying artefacts and attempting to classify them. When the collections are in order, they can be catalogued. Catalogs are a way of presenting collections and serve as a way of conceptualizing the phenomenon of universal collections. Today, given their eff orts to collect and systematize artefacts, researchers are right to describe the activities of 17th century collectors as ‘curatorial’.