Abstract:How did taxidermy develop, and how was it taught before the appearance of nineteenth-century handbooks on the subject? What role did taxidermy play in early natural history collections? How were taxidermy and taxidermists valued? What is significant about the "life" of commodified dead animal bodies? This article explores the answers to these questions. It takes a contemporary taxidermy course and two eighteenth-century taxidermized monkeys as its starting point, arguing that preserved animal bodies were an integral part of a much larger, complex early modern system of research and entertainment, in which taxidermic practices played an important role, but where the taxidermist, however necessary and appreciated, remained an anonymous craftsperson. Moreover, the author demonstrates that in the Stadholderly cabinet, taxidermic practices had to be fitted into a complex whole of analysis, preservation, comparison, and display—interests which sometimes conflicted and had to be carefully balanced. Finally, it is shown that the monkey specimens are an excellent example of how practical knowledge traveled without leaving many textual traces and how the preservation of animal bodies furthered natural historical research.

中文翻译：

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奇迹与自然历史之间的动物尸体：总督威廉五世（1748-1806）内阁和动物园中的动物标本剥制术

摘要：动物标本剥制术是如何发展的，在 19 世纪有关该主题的手册出现之前是如何教授的？动物标本剥制术在早期自然历史收藏中扮演了什么角色？如何评价动物标本剥制术和动物标本剥制师？商品化动物尸体的“生命”有什么意义？本文探讨了这些问题的答案。它以当代动物标本剥制课程和两只 18 世纪的猴子标本剥制术为出发点，认为保存的动物尸体是更大、更复杂的早期现代研究和娱乐系统的一个组成部分，其中动物标本剥制实践发挥了重要作用，但是，标本剥制师无论多么需要和欣赏，仍然是一个匿名的工匠。此外，作者证明，在总督内阁中，动物标本剥制实践必须适应分析、保存、比较和展示的复杂整体——有时利益相互冲突，必须仔细平衡。最后，它表明猴子标本是实践知识如何传播而不留下许多文本痕迹以及动物尸体的保存如何促进自然历史研究的一个很好的例子。