Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 91. (Budapest 1999)

Kázmér, M. ; Papp, G.: Minerals from the Carpathians in an eighteenth-century British collection

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Volume 91. Budapest, 1999 pp. 5-36. Minerals from the Carpathians in an eighteenth-century British collection M. KÁZMÉR

1 & G. PAPP

2 Department of Palaeontology, Eötvös Loránd University H1083 Budapest, Ludovika tér 2, Hungary e-mail: kazmer@ludens.elte.hu 9 "Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Hungarian Natural History Museum H-1431 Budapest, Pf: 137, Hungary e-mail:pappmin® ludens.elte.hu KÁZMÉR, M. & PAPP, G. (1999): Minerals from the Carpathians in an eighteenth-century British collection. - Annales Historico-naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 91: 5-36. Abstract - The Woodwardian Collection of the Sedgwick Museum of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, United Kingdom) is probably the oldest intactly preserved earth science collection in the world. Among its ca. 9,400 specimens (1,574 foreign) it holds 68 specimens of minerals, fossils, and other objects of curiosity, derived from the Carpathians. Local collectors and travellers supplied JOHN WOODWARD (1665-1728), the famous London physician and naturalist with the specimens, which he carefully stored, registered in a catalogue and used as evidences for his natural history studies. Although scattered among other specimens, the Carpathian specimens possibly constitute the oldest existing mineral collection of this region. Most specimens derive from the mining districts of Lower Hungary (now Slovakia) and from Transylvania (now Romania). Collectors, localities and minerals are identified. Appendix 1 lists the entries of Carpathian minerals in WOODWARD'S catalogue. With 2 figures and 2 tables. Dedicated to the 150-year-old Hungarian Geological Society 1848-1998 INTRODUCTION This paper intends to call attention upon a collection, which hides treasures concerning the history of earth sciences of the Carpathians. The Woodwardian Collection, dated from the early eighteenth century, is probably the oldest intactly preserved geological collection in Europe (PRICE 1989). It is in the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge. Its specimens and their arrangement reflects the ideas of the collector, JOHN WOODWARD (1665-1728), an eminent English medical doctor and naturalist. His catalogue of the collection, his scheme of classification and his treatise on the origin of geological objects all have been printed.