Collecting the World Ja mes Delbourgo Collecting the World Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum the belknap press of harvard university press Cambridge, Massachusetts 2017 Copyright © James Delbourgo, 2017 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First published in the United Kingdom as Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane in 2017 by Penguin Books Ltd., London The moral right of the author has been asserted Typeset by Jouve (UK), Milton Keynes. Set in 10.2/13.87 pt Sabon LT Std First Harvard University Press edition, 2017 First Printing Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 978-0-674-73733-4 (cloth : alk. paper) To Rosella Maria Properzi and Laura Leonora Kopp That a treasure like to this never was amass’d together, is beyond a doubt: all that is call’d great in its kind in the whole world becomes contemptible in the comparison; nor can we imagine that such an one ever can be compil’d again, unless such another almost miraculous combination of causes should appear to give it origin. Zachary Pearce, Eulogy to Hans Sloane, 1753 Perhaps the most deeply hidden motive of the person who col- lects can be described this way: he takes up the struggle against dispersion. Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project (1927-40) Contents List of Illustrations xi List of Maps xv Note on Conventions xvii Introduction: The Original Sloane Ranger xix PART ONE Empire of Curiosities 1 Transplantation 3 2 Island of Curiosities 37 3 Keeping the Species from Being Lost 87 PART TWO Assembling the World 4 Becoming Hans Sloane 141 5 The World Comes to Bloomsbury 202 6 Putting the World in Order 258 7 Creating the Public’s Museum 303 Acknowledgements 343 Notes 349 Bibliography 425 Index 473