Schuh’s Annotated Bio-Bibliography


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WARLITZ, Christian.

(1648 – 1717)

(Born: 1648; Died: 1717) German physician.

Warlitz was a professor of medicine at the University of Wittenberg.

Biographical references: ADB. DBA: I 1333, 31-32. Jöcher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, 1750-51. WBI.

1. German, 1702 [Collection catalog].
Museum Curiosum: oder Beschreibung derer raren und ausländ. Sachen so bey Herrn Gottfried Nicolai, wohl-meritirten Stadt-Richter u. vornehmen Apotheckern alhier befindl. untersuchet von Christian Warlitzen ... Wittenberg, Nicolai, 1702.

4°: [35] p.

Very rare. A description of the rare and exotic specimens contained in the cabinet of Gottfried Nicolai, a Wittenberg apothecary. Like most collections of the time, it contained animal, vegetable and mineral specimens.

Reprinted, 1714: Contained in Michael Bernhard Valentini's, Museum Museorum, part 2 (1714), Appendix, p. 81.

Bibliographical references: BL [no copy listed]. Boehmer, Bibliotheca Historiæ Naturalis, 1785-9: 1, 383. Murray, Museums, 1904: 3, 259.

2. German, 1710 [Sale catalog].
Musevm Curiosvm | Avctvm | Oder | Neu=Verbesserte | Beschreibung | Derer raren und Ausländischen | Sachen/ | So vorietzo guten Theils vermehrt zu befinden | Bey | Tit. | Herrn | Christian Nicolai, | Vornehmen Apotheckern allhier/ | untersuchte und erläutert | Von | D. Christian Warlitzen/ | Der Medicin Profesore P.E. auch Hochfürstl. Sächs. | und Anhält. Leib=Medico. | [rule] | Wittenberg, | mit Kreusigischen Schrifften.

4°: 56 p.

Rare. REWORK COMMENTARY: Appently an expanded description description of the cabinet of Christian Nicolai. The collection described in this auction catalog is an interesting example of a natural history Wunderkammer, catalogued in great detail by Warlitz. Classified into animal, vegetable and mineral sections the collection starts, in the classic style, with a human skeleton, a mummified head and funerary urns, gall stones and bezoars, various horns and skulls, including a hippopotamus, and various marine teeth. The vegetable section includes coconuts and datura nuts, ipecacuana root from Brazil and the 'serpentaria Virginiana' recommended by Robert Boyle for the tertian-fever. The minerals include amber, a fossil unicorn, specimens of coral and a piece of terra Melitensi or `Malta earth'. The whole collection has a pharmaceutical air about it and the specimens were clearly selected as curiosities and wonders of nature from the more outlandish corners of the materia medica. Warlitz provides an extensive list of names of all the authors he has consulted and interesting notes on each item with reference to the printed catalogues of earlier Wunderkammern which contained comparable specimens.

Bibliographical references: BL [462.c.30.]. Boehmer, Bibliotheca Historiæ Naturalis, 1785-9: 1, 383. Cobres, Deliciæ Cobresianæ, 1782: 1, 118, no. 7. Gatterer, Mineralogischen Literatur, 1798-9: 1, 259. Murray, Museums, 1904: 3, 259. Wunderkammer to Museum: no. 45.

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