Professor Das presents talk on The world in a box: Cabinets of Curiosity
Professor Nandini Das (Tutorial Fellow in English at Exeter College) gave an online talk to Exeter alumni, students and staff entitled The world in a box: Cabinets of Curiosity on Wednesday 28th April.
The engaging talk explored Britain’s history of collecting, culminating in the trend of ‘cabinets of curiosity’ that sprung up during the Renaissance. Once limited to kings and princes, Professor Das discussed how these collections began to expand to ordinary people in the 17th century. These cabinets included everything from shells to books to stuffed birds, and remain unique evidence for how 17th century Britain interacted with the world around it.
Professor Das argued that ‘the cabinet of curiosities is part of a culture that was both struggling with and luxuriating in the possibilities of a new age, an age of information, of technologies, that made communication easier and information much more readily available’.
The talk is available here: watch The world in a box: Cabinets of Curiosity.
Professor Nandini Das
