ABSTRACT
In the three-volume narrative of his travels, Coryat's Crudities, Oxford-educated Thomas Coryat provides an instructive introduction into the way early collecting dramatized identity. Coryat, then, not only collected culture, he created it, and it created him for his collection of travels, epigraphs, and inscriptions translated into public print form his identity. These ancient practices intensified in the Medieval period as the Church grew dominant, but the practices of collecting, displaying, and discussing objects start far earlier than the eighteenth century. Listed under the heading 'A Crocodile described' in his Index, and immediately followed by 'The Crosses of France', Coryat's understanding of his creature, which became the quintessential emblem of the virtuoso's curiosity cabinet, begins with a physical description, but proceeds to blend historical, zoological, and cultural information. Steele here identifies the woman who made the hat and further corrects history by citing the Bible to claim Jews did not use straw.
