ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the relation between collecting and museums, in order to put the subject of collecting in the wider context of the museological discourse. It presents a literature review: the historiography of collecting, approaches to collecting theory, and background literature on classical collecting. The book also discusses antiquarianism and the notions of the past that this implies. It argues that Marcus Valerius Martialis's poetry, besides offering information on collectors and collecting and providing the most vivid and realistic picture of the Roman collectors in practice, contributes toward the understanding of the interrelation between people, material culture, and literature in the Roman world. The book investigates the notions of time and space as these appear in the philosophical, the anthropological, and the mythical thought of the classical world, to trace their impact on notions of order, knowledge and assemblage of material culture.
