Levinus Vincent

Levinus Vincent (1658-1727) was a rich Dutch damask merchant, of Anabaptist origin. He collected "naturalia" (shells, dry and wet preparations, and insects) and "artificialia": (ethnography, paintings and drawings of flowers). He turned the passion of Jan Swammerdam for insects into one of the most fashionable activieties of late seventeenth-century Amsterdam, preserving and displaying great quantities of insects in new ways.

Levinus Vincent aimed at a non-Latin-speaking public, printing the catalogue of his collection in Dutch and French ("Wondertooneel der Nature" = "Wonder Theater of Nature"), giving details of all the objects on display. This catalogue could be bought for three guilder and a tip or entrance fee of two guilder. He had fixed openings times for its visitors. In his visitor book (held from 1705 to 1737) are at least 3,500 entries, including Peter the Great.

Levinus Vincent at first lived in Amsterdam and in 1705 he moved to Haarlem. After the death of his second wife in 1715 he remarried a woman that did not like his collection or hobby. Levinus moved to the Hague, hoping to find among its many diplomats a buyer for his cabinet. He corresponded with friends such as James Petiver and Hans Sloane in England.

ources

* Driessen, J. (1996) Tsaar Peter de Grote en zijn Amsterdamse vrienden. In samenwerking met het Amsterdams Historisch Museum.
* Freedberg, D & J. de Vries (eds) (1991) Science, Commerce and Art. In: Art in History, History in Art, p. 379, 386.
* Vincent, L. (1715) Wondertooneel der Natuur, ofte een Korte Beschrijvinge zo van Bloedelooze, Zwemmende, Vliegende, Kruipende, en Viervoetige Geklaauwde Eijerleggende Dieren ... bevat in de Kabinetten van Levinus Vincent, adorned with a handsome title-page designed by Romein de Hooghe.

External links

* [http://num-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr:8080/view/authors/Vincent,_Levinus.html Digital books (4) at the Universities of Strasbourg]
* http://www.mmoca.org/starrytransit/cabinets_of_curiosities.php