Appendices - Philipp von Stosch: Collecting, Drawing, Studying and Publishing Engraved Gems

This book, published with two digital-only appendices, is designed to show and discuss another facet of Stosch that would argue with the dense mythology of a spy, hoarder and libertine clouding the true nature of his accomplishments as an antiquarian, collector, patron and scholar. This is possible due to discovery and study of a substantial part of Stosch’s, previously considered lost, enormous <i>Paper Museum of Gems</i>. The artists, including Pier Leone Ghezzi, Girolamo Odam, Bernard Picart, Antonio Maria Zanetti, Markus Tuscher, Theodorus Netscher, Georg Martin Preißler, Johann Justin Preißler and Johann Adam Schweickart, tirelessly worked in a studio organised by Stosch on the faithful documentation of vast numbers of engraved gems. Made for a variety of purposes, they expose Stosch’s crucial role in the creation and transfer of knowledge that contributed immensely to the transformation of eighteenth-century antiquarianism towards a more scholarly archaeological science.