Unicorns’ horns, mermaids’ skeletons, stuffed and preserved animals and plants, precious metals, clocks, scientific instruments, celestial globes—all knowledge, the whole cosmos, arranged on shelves in a single room. Such were the cabinets of curiosities of the seventeenth century, the last period of history when man could aspire to know everything.Cabinets of CuriositiesAuthor Patrick Maurie`s chronicles the amazing history of these rooms of wonders in this ingeniously erudite survey. Not many of the rooms survive, but there are pictorial records and their contents still exist and are among the treasures of museums all over the world.