Drawing on case studies from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, covering Europe and beyond, Collectors' Knowledge: What is Kept, What is Discarded investigates how knowledge was acquired, organized and sometimes lost. It examines collections of texts and objects--libraries, textbooks, miscellanies, commonplace books, data collections pertaining to historical events, encyclopedias, royal and ducal treasures, curiosity cabinets, galleries and museums--to uncover the processes of accumulation, organization, selection and rejection that have shaped learning. The essays emphasize...