"Animalia curiosa"
"Animalia curiosa"

The category of curiosity in animal collections

Author(s): Aleksandra Jakóbczyk-Gola
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: collecting culture; Baroque; curiosity; philosophia curiosa; Wojciech Tylkowski; collections
Summary/Abstract: The dissertation shows curiosity – curiositas as one of the most essential, apart from novitas, varietas, maraviglia, admiration, categories of the Baroque aesthetics. The article aims to show biological and neurological mechanisms governing this drive. The author discusses the qualities of the brain and how the prize works, which are the most important aspects of awakening and satisfying curiosity. The analysed notion is considered in one of its manifestations: the need to collect animals. Zoological specimens – apart from plants and minerals, frequently became the most important element of the collection of curiosities. As a result of the emancipation of natural sciences in the 17th century, numerous inventions and the change in attitude to knowledge, which was treated in a syncretic manner, human attitude to nature was also transformed. People were interested in nature more and all unusual and strange specimens were treated as the limits of power of creative nature. Although natural collections in old Poland were not as abundant as in Western or Southern Europe – armour, works of art and decorative arts were exhibited more often, they constituted an important component of contemporary cabinets of curiosities also in these areas. From this different, new research and collector’s perspective the objects which belong to the scientia curiosa trend look especially interesting. The basis for further reflections is the analysis of Wojciech Tylkowski’s "Erudite Discussions", which are characteristic of this intellectual trend. The article focuses on reading the vision of the animal world, which emerges from the Jesuit’s works. His questions, confirming the curiosity of the world are still surprisingly valid, and the answers given by the author show his profound knowledge of animals. The dissertation attempts to answer the question what “quaint” means in the Baroque era: on what basis a natural exhibit could be classified as unusual and what animals were perceived as such. Tylkowski attempts to answer this question differentiating between familiarity, ordinariness and strangeness and wildness, related to it.

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