Collections and Pedagogies of Objects in European Learning Environments

Abstract Collections have long been recognized as spaces that offer countless opportunities to learn— and to teach. Academic collections in particular, embedded as they were in very particular kinds of learning environments, have long created moments involving teaching and researching simultaneously; however, the quality and character of this research in early modern European academic environments has been the subject of some recent debate. Given what is a widespread acknowledgement of their links to learning and instructional potency, we still know relatively little about the perimeters of the lessons that specific objects housed in collections were embedded within, or more specifically how historical actors from a range of social backgrounds used collections to teach with real things ( realia ) across time and space. This special issue is devoted to a preliminary investigation of the historically situated dimensions of “teaching collections” ( Lehrsammlungen ) and specific object-pedagogical approaches to teaching in formal, or semi-formalized, household settings.