ABSTRACT
The last two chapters have explored investigative projects - county-based natural histories and numismatics - that found natural homes in seventeenth-century English museums. Each was enthusiastically pursued by gentlemen virtuosi, but also significantly supported and disciplined by philosophical societies and academic institutions. Plot’s philosophical histories were essentially attempts to assemble an understanding of the nation’s material culture, while numismatics promised new archaeological knowledge through the study of coins and medals. Substantially distinct in various ways, they nonetheless shared much in terms of methodology and epistemology. In both, objects were inexorably tied to a new understanding of the world that resulted from contemplating objects that were placed at the heart of a web of information and anecdote.
