The bibliography around cabinets of curiosities, their many aspects and their economic and intellectual impact at their time and today is vast.

 

A good starting point is the following clearly written and richly documented Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities

 

Much on cabinets of curiosities and their transformation into museums as we know them today can be found in Impey, O., & MacGregor, A. (2013). The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth-and Seventeenth-Century Europe (1985). Historical Perspectives on Preventive Conservation, 6, 78.

 

This book can be read on line by clicking the following link:

 

https://archive.org/details/originsofmuseums0000unse

 

The discussion on cabinets of curiosities, their characteristics, function and development is heavy on the study of Dutch, and other north European economies of the 16th-17th centuries or the art of that time.  For instance the following indicative collection make for some fascinating reading:

 

Swan, C. (2015). Exotica on the move: birds of paradise in early modern Holland. Art History, 38(4), 620-635.

 

Pollig H. (1987) , Exotische Welten. Europäische Phantasien, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1987

 

Cook J. H. (2007), Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age, New Haven, CT, 2007

 

For a British take on the issue and the famous Paston Treasure see:

 

Moore, A., Flis, N., & Vanke, F. (2018). The Paston Treasure: Microcosm of the Known World. Yale Center for British Art.

 

Although the marine element is very prominent in the cabinets of curiosities, if we judge by printed catalogues of content and their representations in art, the topic has attracted very little modern scholarly attention. In most cases, the emphasis is placed on shells.

 

A book by Marisa Anne Bass, Anne Goldgar, Hanneke Grootenboer and Claudia Swan titled Conchophilia: shells, art, and curiosity in Early Modern Europe (Princeton University Press, 2021) is perhaps the most comprehensive study on the topic and its various chapters include lots of captivating high quality illustrations.

 

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691215761/conchophilia

 

Also, the book by journalist Cynthia Barnett  “The Sound of the Sea. Seashells and the Fate of the Ocean” (2021, W.W. Norton & Company)collects and discusses several stories about the molluscan contents of the early Cabinets of Curiosities (especially in ch. 6) in a, exact, charming and easy-to-read style.

 

Some papers also focus on sea shells, see for example Van Hogendorp Prosperetti, L. (2006). ‘Conchas Legere’: Shells as trophies of repose in Northern European humanism. Art History, 29(3), 387-413.

 

For the case of George Eberhard Rumpf (or Rumfius) that was discussed in the post see Rumpf, Georg Eberhard  1741. D'Amboinsche rariteitkamer : behelzende eene beschryvinge van allerhande zoo weeke als harde schaalvisschen, te weete raare krabben, kreeften en diergelyke zeedieren, als mede allerhande hoorntjes en schulpen, die men in d'Amboinsche Zee vindt: daar benevens zommige mineraalen, gesteenten, en soorten van aarde, die in d'Amboinsche, en zommige omleggende Eilanden gevonden worden, verdeelt in drie Boeken, en met nodige printverbeeldingen, alle naar 't leven getekent voorzien beschreven,  Jan Roman de Jonge , Amsterdam.

 

The whole book with its charming illustrations can be found scanned here:

 

https://catalog.lindahall.org/discovery/delivery/01LINDAHALL_INST:LHL/1284865590005961

 

The much less researched early collections of notable objects, particularly those of antiquity, see:  Mayor, A. (2000). The first fossil hunters: paleontology in Greek and Roman times. Princeton University Press, especially pages 139-143 and the relevant footnotes, which, in this case are even richer than the text itself.

 

The archaeology of those ancient exotic collectible sea shells is clearly illustrated in a review article by David Reese: Reese, David S. "The trade of Indo‐Pacific shells into the Mediterranean Basin and Europe." Oxford Journal of Archaeology 10.2 (1991): 159-196.