The Musaeum of Alexandria and the Formation of the Museum in Eighteenth-Century France
Year: 1997
Type: article
Abstract: The Hellenistic Musaeum of Alexandria became a subject of sustained interest for seventeenth- and eighteenth-century antiquarians and architects. What little documentation remained indicated that the Musaeum had been an elite group of scholars, supported by a library, housing, and other research facilities. In 1793 the French Revolutionary government gave its newly public collections of rare objects the name museum in reference to the Alexandrian project. However, only one museum in Paris could sustain the comparison: the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. By 1797 it alone retained the name of museum after the ancient Musaeum; the rest carried the modern title musee.
Source: The Art Bulletin
Author: Paula Young Lee
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2039936308