New worlds, new species, new cures: discovery, natural history, and medicine

Today, the museum is long established as an institution in its own right.  In the late medieval and early modern periods, collections began to be assembled in a variety of different contexts: ecclesiastical, courtly, academic, and otherwise.  Some of the most congenial of these contexts were medical, two of which are illustrated here: the apothecary shop and the anatomy theatre. The third example illustrates how medical considerations also shaped princely collecting at the very highest level.