In the early modern period, the links between aesthetics and the natural sciences were close. Wunderkammern, libraries, and cabinets of experimental philosophy, physics, or mathematics were built and decorated with references to classical and contemporary learning alike, for practical as well as aesthetic reasons.
In this book the early modern urge for knowledge, power, and control, and ultimately the relation between art and science, are illuminated and problematized through detailed analyses and specific examples, especially from Sweden.
Buildings, interiors, and objects intended to visualize learning are part of our material heritage. Both as a scholar at Stockholm University and as director of the Stockholm Observatory Museum, Inga Elmqvist Söderlund (1967–2017) was deeply committed to preserving and sharing this heritage.

Peter Gillgren is professor of Art History at Stockholm University.
Merit Laine is associate professor of Art History at Uppsala University.
Mårten Snickare is professor of Art History at Stockholm University.