Nature’s Cabinet Unlock’d: Metaphorical Cabinets in Early Modern Natural Philosophy

• In Event: Cabinetization and Compartmentalization in Early Modern Art and Science I

Abstract

Railing against the ‘arrogant and fanciful Title’ of Nature’s Cabinet Unlock’d, Thomas Tenison was clearly offended by the misuse of a powerful metaphor — the pamphlet failed to provide the new knowledge it promised, and in doing so displayed a disarming lack of humility. The metaphor of nature’s cabinet appeared in print with increasing frequency during the seventeenth century, accompanying a growing consumer demand for cabinets. Used to explain the mysterious riches of the natural world, the potency of the microcosmic metaphorical cabinet drew on the wide range of contemporary physical cabinets: freestanding units or small private rooms; spaces for study and reflection, collection and experimentation, storage and domestic activity. This paper will explore how the varying physical spaces of the seventeenth century cabinet were overlaid in the metaphor of nature’s cabinet not only to reflect an array of epistemological perspectives, but also to construct the cognitive structures that underpinned them.

Author

• Sarah Cawthorne, University of York