Book as Museum in Eighteenth-Century Museum, the Inaugural Paleography and the Book Lecture

Collections of antiquities depicted in richly illustrated books, many calling themselves museums, flourish in the eighteenth century when the public museum becomes a significant cultural institution in western Europe. These beautiful books mobilize the museum, bringing new forms of knowledge organization to readers far and wide. The books display cultural capital and, often, political power as well. Using case studies from Florence, Paris, and Naples, book historian Michael F. Suarez, S.J., examines this fascinating chapter in cultural and intellectual history.