Ole Worm, who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Gr
Portrait of Ole Worm, "Fasti Danici", 1626 Wellcome L0008182
Ole Worm and Dorothea Worm, née Fincke
Only known illustration of a great auk drawn from life
"Musei Wormiani Historia", the frontispiece from the Museum Wormianum depicting Wormius' cabinet of curiosities
Cabinets of curiosities, also known as wonder-rooms, were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined. Although more rudimentary col
Ole Worm
…Worm's primary use of his natural history collection was for the purpose of pedagogy. As a natural philosopher, Worm assembled a great collection of curiosities, which ranged from native artifacts collected from the New World, to taxidermed animals, to fossils, on which he speculated greatly. Museum Wormianum…
"Musei Wormiani Historia", the frontispiece from the Museum Wormianum depicting Ole Worm's cabinet of curiosities
A male Narwhal, whose tusk, as a unicorn horn, was a common piece in cabinets
A corner of a cabinet, painted by Frans II Francken in 1636, reveals the range of connoisseurship of a Baroque-era virtuoso.
Fold-out engraving from Ferrante Imperato's Dell'Historia Naturale (Naples 1599), the earliest illustration of a natural history cabinet