“Kunstgeschichtliche Prinzipien darf man von dem Mann nicht fordern”: Samuel Quiccheberg’s Inscriptiones through the Lens of Julius von Schlosser

In his book of 1908, "Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance", Julius von Schlosser interprets Samuel Quiccheberg’s "Inscriptiones vel tituli theatri amplissimi complectentis rerum universitatis singulas materias et imagines eximias" (1565) as the oldest-known treatise on museology. This interpretation deserves historical re-consideration. This paper argues that Schlosser's presentation of the "Inscriptiones" reflects early twentieth-century pre-assumptions much more than it does Quiccheberg’s exploration of the world of collectibles. Discussing the conceptual framework in which the ‘history of collections’ originated more than one century ago is also fundamental to advance our understanding of Quiccheberg’s treatise and, more generally, of sixteenth-century attitudes towards rare media and objects.