(Born: May 1710; Died: Dresden, Germany, 29 July 1771) German museum curator.

Eilenburg matriculated at the University of Leipzig on the 27th April 1731. After graduation, he travelled to Dresden. At the beginning of 1741, he became "adjunkt" to the Gallerie des Sciences. There he helped Heucher arrange the collections. On the 26th February 1746, Eilenburg was named Inspector of the natural history and mineral cabinets.

Biographical references: DBA: I 273, 238-240. • Fischer, Mineralogie in Sachsen, 1939: 91-2 & 104-9. • Jöcher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, Supplement. • Meusel, Verstorbenen Teutschen Schrifsteller, 1802-16. • WBI.

Kurzer Entwurf, 1755

1. German & French, 1755.
[German title page reads:] Kurzer Entwurf | der | königlichen | Naturalienkammer | zu | Dresden. | [ornament] | [rule] | Mit allergnädigster Freyheit. | [rule] | Dresden und Leipzig | In der Waltherischen Buchhandlung. 1755.

[French title page reads:]

Description | Du Cabinet Roial | De Dresde | Touchant | L'Histoire Naturelle. | [ornament] | [rule] | Avec Privilége de Sa Majesté. | [rule] | a Dresde et a Leipsic | Ches George Conrad Walther, | Libraire Du Roi. 1755.

4°: π² A-Z⁴ Aa-Bb⁴ Cc²; 105l.; [4], [1]-102, [1]-102, [1] p., engraved title vignette, 2 engraved headpieces, 2 folding plates. The pagination is the same on consecutive pages with the German and French text interleaved. For example, page 20 of German text is faced on the opposite page with page 20 of the French. This is followed by page 21 of French followed by page 21 of German, etc. Page size: 280 x 210 mm.

Contents: π1rv, German title page, verso blank.; π2rv, French title page, verso blank.; A1r, "Vorbericht. | [ornate rule] | Discours Preliminaire."; A1v-2C2r, Text.; 2C2v, "Errata."

Very scarce. Describes the natural history collections of the Zwinger Museum at Dresden; these included mineral, fossil, botanical, anatomical, zoological, and coral (shell). The author gives a history of each collection and comments on many of the highlights of this great museum. The plates show the floor plan of the museum. The first separate guide to the Royal natural history collections housed in the magnificent baroque Zwinger in Dresden, which also contained the print cabinet. This work was one of the by-products of August the Strong's reorganization of the old Wunderkammer into specialized collections, and contains an account of the minerals, petrifications, animal skeletons and specimens, corals and shells. The final chapter contains a description of a model of Solomon's temple, constructed over a period of twenty years from Biblical references by a Hamburg gentleman named Schott.

The work described here has both the German and French texts combined. Two other states of the catalog exist, one consisting solely of the German text, the other completely in French. Both of these were published in 1755.

Bibliographical references: BL [no copy listed]. • Fischer, Mineralogie in Sachsen, 1939: 133-6. • Freiesleben, Sächsische Mineralien-Verzeichnisse, 1828: no. 19. • Freilich Sale Catalog: no. 167 [German text only]. • Gatterer, Mineralogischen Literatur, 1798-9: 1, 263. • Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen: 1755, 1288. • Hamburgische Magazin: 16, 160. • Murray, Museums, 1904: 1, 208 & 2, 213.

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