“小房间里无限的财富”——这就是17世纪的古董柜。帕特里克·毛里埃斯通过此书重建这些“奇迹般的房间”，并展示了正处于鼎盛时期所包含的许多最奇特的物品，以及少数完整的内部设施。

All knowledge, the cosmos arranged on shelves, in cupboards, or hanging from the ceiling, ‘infinite riches in a little room’ – such were the cabinets of curiosities of the 17th century. This survey, now available in a compact edition, traces the amazing history of cabinets of curiosities, from their first appearance in the inventories and engravings commissioned by Renaissance nobles such as the Medici or the Hapsburgs, via those of the Dane Ole Wurm and the Italian polymath Athanasius Kircher, to the serious 17th- and 18th-century scientists Elias Ashmole and Levinas Vincent.