Breslau Cabinet of Natural and Artificial Curiosities

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BAVARIAN STATE LIBRARY

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That the collections of Kretzschmar, Dr. Laures, the Vollgnads, Dr. Scholtz, Kalenberger, Crusius, and Dr. Sachs von Lewenheimb are the most prominent in Breslau is attested to by Johann Wilhelm Moller in his Dissertation on the Technophysiomeums of Altdorf original: "Dissert. de Technophysiotameis Altorffi" delivered twenty years ago; and after him, Michael Bernhard Valentini confirms the same in the second part of his Museum of Museums, published nearly ten years ago. But indeed, the following scholastic program, which M. Georgius Wendius, professor at the celebrated St. Mary Magdalene Gymnasium, published in the year 1679 (thus forty-six years ago), shows that none of these still existed, but rather that very different ones did. Its title is: The zeal of certain Patrons and Citizens of Breslau for collecting coins. In this, he not only reviewed the coin cabinets but also commemorated those whose collections extended further, as follows: Breslau graciously exhibits in the private cabinets of the highest and most noble men, coins to be compared with the best of the Germans, and in some cases even preferred to them: The Illustrious Lord Fridericus Maximilianus von Rethel und Hennersdorff, in Schmiedefeld and Elgut, Councilor to His Sacred Imperial Majesty and Assessor at the Captaincy of the Duchy of Breslau, Imperial Count Palatine, Golden Knight, just as he has acquired for himself a most absolute Museum during this recent thirty-year interval, so also in it, besides six hundred other curiosities, he has deposited with wonderful skill and no less expense whatever is judged rare or precious among coins. The Magnificent Lord Johann Sigismund von Haunold in Sacherwitz, Senior of the Illustrious Senatorial College, etc., in more recent ones: The Incomparable Lord Daniel Caspar von Lohenstein in Kütlau, Reysau, and Roskowitz, Councilor to His Sacred Imperial Majesty and Proto-Syndic of the Republic of Breslau, in ancient ones, which offer to the eyes of spectators what is not found everywhere. Nor should the Most Noble Lord Georg Mauritius von Hoffmannswaldau in Arnoldsmühle, and the Most Noble Lord... be defrauded of their praise.