We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
England's first public museum -- a triumph over nature and the East. The Museum Ashmolianum by John Dolben (1662-1710), recited at Encaenia 1679: edition, commentary and interpretation.
- Authors
Ritter, Carolin
- Abstract
John Dolben, the son of the Archbishop of York (also named John Dolben), student of Christ Church, Oxford, and later politician, composed 137 hexameters about the foundation of the Ashmolean Museum. In the poem, he honours Elias Ashmole, the museum's benefactor, and John Tradescant, who initiated the collection. The poem describes how natural specimens and artefacts from all over the world find their way into Oxford University's museum of curiosities. In Dolben's imagery, nature has been taken hostage and brought home across the sea; Eastern empires have been bereaved of their treasures. Some of the exhibits described can even be identified in Tradescant's museum catalogue, such as a waxwork of Phaethon in Apollo's chariot, or a picture of St George and the dragon carved into a cherrystone. The author relives Tradescant's voyage to India, pictured as a voyage to the Golden Age, and compares it to Bacchus' triumph over the East, also recalling Alexander the Great's expeditions. Dolben draws on several models, not only on ancient authors like Ovid, Juvenal, and Lucretius but also on the printed catalogue to the Tradescant Collection, in order to illustrate human victory over nature and England's power over new parts of the world.
- Subjects
DOLBEN, John; HEXAMETER; VERSIFICATION; 17TH century English poetry; NATURE in poetry; LITERARY criticism; POETRY (Literary form)
- Publication
Classical Receptions Journal, 2015, Vol 7, Issue 3, p442
- ISSN
1759-5134
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/crj/clu027