Levinus Vincent

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Wondertooneel der natuur Tome 1 Frontispiece

Levinus Vincent (1658, Amsterdam - 8 November 1727, Haarlem) was a rich Dutch damask merchant of the Anabaptist faith. He collected naturalia (shells, dry and wet preparations, and insects) and artificialia - (ethnography, paintings and drawings of flowers). He turned the passion of Jan Swammerdam for insects into one of the most fashionable activieties of late seventeenth-century Amsterdam, preserving and displaying great quantities of insects in new ways.

Levinus Vincent aimed at the non-Latin-speaking public, printing the catalogue of his collection in both Dutch and French - Wondertooneel der Nature (Wonder Theater of Nature), giving details of all the objects on display. This catalogue sold for three guilder plus a tip or entrance fee of two guilder. He had fixed hours for its visitors. His visitor book (from 1705 to 1737) includes at least 3,500 entries, including Peter the Great.

Levinus Vincent first lived in Amsterdam, and in 1705 he moved to Haarlem. After the death of his second wife in 1715, he remarried a woman who did not like his collection or hobby. Vincent moved to the Hague, hoping to find a buyer among its many diplomats for his cabinet. He corresponded with such friends as James Petiver and Hans Sloane in England.

Sources

Driessen, J. (1996) Tsaar Peter de Grote en zijn Amsterdamse vrienden. In samenwerking met het Amsterdams Historisch Museum.
Freedberg, D & J. de Vries (eds) (1991) Science, Commerce and Art. In: Art in History, History in Art, p. 379, 386.
Vincent, L. (1715) Wondertooneel der Natuur, ofte een Korte Beschrijvinge zo van Bloedelooze, Zwemmende, Vliegende, Kruipende, en Viervoetige Geklaauwde Eijerleggende Dieren ... bevat in de Kabinetten van Levinus Vincent, adorned with a handsome title-page designed by Romein de Hooghe.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wondertooneel der Nature.

Digital books (4) at the Universities of Strasbourg
Kunstkammer The Wunderkammer

Authority control	VIAF: 10198482 ISNI: 0000 0000 6145 447X

Persondata
Name	Vincent, Levinus
Alternative names
Short description	Dutch entomologist
Date of birth	1658
Place of birth
Date of death	8 November 1727
Place of death

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