Le géant, la licorne et la tulipe, les cabinets de curiosités en France au XVIIe siècle

Summer is the season for gigantic books and adventure novels. Here is one that will quench all thirst for exoticism and wonder. One strolls through unicorn horns and the teeth of a giant from the Ariège region, between canopic jars and turned ivories. We are of course referring to the “cabinets de curiosités” that were so in fashion during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, when one wanted by all means to understand the world in all of its manifestations, in particular the more bizarre ones. The author has defined typologies of collected objects in which he slips 45 varieties Pierre Morin tulips as well as the much disputed Othons, those bronze coins of an Emperor who only reigned for 3 months in the year 69. Her we have the animal, mineral and vegetable kingdoms… and even gravel with the stones from Chaduc. They gave way to savory exchanges between Rubens and Peiresc, the learned man from Provence when they wished to determine what part of the female anatomy details these reliefs of the "greatest boasters of love all of Antiquity"…

• Le géant, la licorne et la tulipe, les cabinets de curiosités en France au XVIIe siècle, by Antoine Schnapper, Flammarion, 2012, 768 p., €15.