Von anno 1607. Verzaichnus, was in der Röm. Kay. May. Kunstcammer gefunden worden, etc.

The present manuscript records the holdings of the Kunstkammer of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. The author has been identified as the painter Daniel Fröschl (before 1572–1613), who from 1607 was the successor to Ottavio Strada (c. 1550–1612) as imperial antiquary. Fröschl worked at the behest of Rudolf II, recording the latter’s ideas in this 415-page manuscript. However, the real author, who shaped and designed the collection, was none other than the emperor himself. Drawn up in 1607, the inventory also contains addenda dating up to 1611 and was thus concluded in the year preceding the monarch’s death. Two further inventories of the Kunstkammer dating to 1619 and 1621 respectively were drawn up posthumously. Long believed to have been lost, the inventory of 1607/11 was discovered in the Princely Library after the Second World War by Gustav Wilhelm, director of the Collections of the Reigning Prince of Liechtenstein from 1940 to 1975. It is presumably a second copy that was kept by Karl I von Liechtenstein (1569–1627) in his role as head of the imperial household and incorporated in the Library after his death. The discovery of the inventory created during the emperor’s lifetime has cast a new light on the perceptions of Rudolf II as a collector. Hitherto regarded mainly as a collector of paintings, the emperor now emerges as an individual who was interested in all fields of knowledge. Divided into sections of ‘naturalia’, ‘artificialia’ and ‘scientifica’, the inventory shows that the aim was to create an encyclopaedic Kunstkammer at the very highest level. Arranged in three consecutive rooms, Rudolf’s Kunstkammer was thus a mirror of the universe, a microcosm at whose centre was the emperor himself. From his office as emperor Rudolf derived his claim to the most precious and rare gifts of nature and the most valuable creations of the human spirit, all of which were to be found in his personal Kunstkammer.