SAMUEL QUICCHEBERG

THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

THE FIRST TREATISE ON MUSEUMS SAMUEL QUICCHEBERG’S INSCRIPTIONES, 1565

SAMUEL QUICCHEBERG
Translation by Mark A. Meadow and Bruce Robertson
Introduction by Mark A. Meadow

THE FIRST TREATISE

ON MUSEUMS
SAMUEL QUICCHEBERG’S
INSCRIPTIONES 1565

BLUB TK

Getty Publications
(800) 223-3431
www.getty.edu/publications

Texts & Documents

Printed in China
The Getty Research Institute
Texts & Documents

THE FIRST TREATISE

ON MUSEUMS
SAMUEL QUICCHEBERG’S
INSCRIPTIONES, 1565
SAMUEL QUICCHEBERG

Translation by Mark A. Meadow and Bruce Robertson

Edited by Mark A. Meadow with Bruce Robertson
THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS PROGRAM
homas W. Gaehtgens, Director, Getty Research Institute
Gail Feigenbaum, Associate Director

© 2013 J. Paul Getty Trust

Published by the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
Getty Publications
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500
Los Angeles, California 90049-1682
www.getty.edu/publications

Laura Santiago, Manuscript Editor

John Hicks, Production Editor
Catherine Lorenz, Designer
Suzanne Watson, Production Coordinator
Name TK, Typesetter
Stuart Smith, Series Designer

Printed in China
Type composed in Minion and Trade Gothic

17 16 15 14 13 54321

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Quicchelberg, Samuel, 1529-1567.

[Inscriptiones. English]
he irst treatise on museums : Samuel Quiccheberg’s Inscriptiones, 1565 / Samuel Quiccheberg ; translation
by Mark A. Meadow and Bruce Robertson ; edited by Mark A. Meadow with Bruce Robertson.
pages cm. -- (Texts & documents / Getty Research Institute)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60606-149-7
1. Museum techniques--Early works to 1800. 2. Museums--Philosophy. 3. Collectors and collecting--History.
4. Cabinets of curiosities--Early works to 1800. I. Meadow, Mark A, translator, editor of compilation. II.
Robertson, Bruce, 1955- translator, editor of compilation. III. Title. IV. Series: Texts & documents.
AM49.Q5313 2013
069’.4--dc23
2013016182

Front cover: Display cabinet with assemblage, see pl. 18

Back cover: Hans Mielich (German, 1516–73), Portrait of Samuel A. Quiccheberg, detail of pl. 1.

his volume translates Samuel Quiccheberg, Inscriptiones; vel, tituli theatri amplissimi . . . (Munich: Ex Oicina
Adami Berg typographi, 1565).

English-language translation copyright: he Regents of the University of California, Mark A. Meadow, and Bruce
Robertson. © 2002. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Funding for translation provided in part by the University of California Humanities Research Institute and a grant
from the J. Paul Getty Trust.
 CONTENTS

vi Preface: Wonderful Museums and Quiccheberg’s Inscriptiones

BRUCE ROBERTSON

xii Acknowledgments

1 Introduction
MARK A. MEADOW

42 Plates

56 Biography of Samuel Quiccheberg

HEINRICH PANTALEON

58 Preface to Quiccheberg Manuscript

LEO QUICCHEBERG

61 Inscriptiones; or, Titles of the Most Ample heater

SAMUEL QUICCHEBERG

132 Bibliography
140 Biographical Notes on Contributors
141 Illustration Credits
142 Index