Ole Worm
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| + | [[Image:Musei Wormiani Historia.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The ''Museum Wormianum'' (1654), the [[cabinet of curiosities]] by [[Ole Worm]]]] | ||
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| - | '''Ole Worm''' (May 13, 1588 – August 31, 1655), (pronounced "Olə Vorm") who often went by the Latinized form of his name '''Olaus Wormius''', was a [[Denmark|Danish]] [[physician]] and [[antiquary]]. | + | '''Ole Worm''' (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654) was a Danish [[physician]], [[natural history|natural historian]] and [[antiquary]]. He was a professor at the [[University of Copenhagen]] where he taught Greek, Latin, physics and medicine. |
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| + | Worm was a [[collector]] and he compiled text and engravings of his collection, along with his speculations about their meaning, into a catalog of his ''[[Museum Wormianum]]'', published after his death in 1654. It contained a detailed description of the [[natural history]] cabinet. The text is divided into four books; the first three dealing with minerals, plant and animal. The fourth detailed archaeological and ethnographic items. | ||
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| + | [[H. P. Lovecraft]] created the character Olaus Wormius as a translator from [[Greek language|Greek]] into [[Latin]] of his notorious fictional [[grimoire]], the ''[[Necronomicon]]''. Lovecraft also writes him as a [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] [[priest]], and misplaces him in the thirteenth century. | ||
| + | ==Museum Wormianum== | ||
| + | As a [[natural philosopher]], Worm assembled a great collection of [[cabinet of curiosities|curiosities]], which ranged from native artifacts collected from the New World, to [[taxidermy|taxidermed]] animals, to [[fossil]]s, on which he speculated greatly. Museum Wormianum was the cabinet of rarities of the natural history cabinet established by Ole Worm in Copenhagen. It consists of minerals, plants, animals, and man-made objects. | ||
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| + | Worm compiled engravings of his collection, along with his speculations about their meaning, into a catalog of his ''Museum Wormianum'', published after his death in 1654. ''Museum Wormianum'' contained a detailed description of the natural history cabinet. The text is divided into four books; the first three dealing with minerals, plant and animal. The fourth detailed archaeological and ethnographic items. | ||
| ==Life== | ==Life== | ||
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Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654) was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Latin, physics and medicine.
Worm was a collector and he compiled text and engravings of his collection, along with his speculations about their meaning, into a catalog of his Museum Wormianum, published after his death in 1654. It contained a detailed description of the natural history cabinet. The text is divided into four books; the first three dealing with minerals, plant and animal. The fourth detailed archaeological and ethnographic items.
H. P. Lovecraft created the character Olaus Wormius as a translator from Greek into Latin of his notorious fictional grimoire, the Necronomicon. Lovecraft also writes him as a Dominican priest, and misplaces him in the thirteenth century.
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Museum Wormianum
As a natural philosopher, Worm assembled a great collection of curiosities, which ranged from native artifacts collected from the New World, to taxidermed animals, to fossils, on which he speculated greatly. Museum Wormianum was the cabinet of rarities of the natural history cabinet established by Ole Worm in Copenhagen. It consists of minerals, plants, animals, and man-made objects.
Worm compiled engravings of his collection, along with his speculations about their meaning, into a catalog of his Museum Wormianum, published after his death in 1654. Museum Wormianum contained a detailed description of the natural history cabinet. The text is divided into four books; the first three dealing with minerals, plant and animal. The fourth detailed archaeological and ethnographic items.
Life
Worm was the son of Willum Worm who served as the mayor of Aarhus, and was made a rich man by the inheritance from his father. Ole Worm's grandfather Johan Worm, a magistrate in Aarhus, was a Lutheran who had fled from Arnhem in Gelderland while it was under Catholic rule. He married Dorothea Fincke, the daughter of a friend and colleague, Thomas Fincke, a mathematician who invented the terms 'tangent' and 'secant'.
Ole Worm was something of a perpetual student: after attending the grammar school of Aarhus, he continued his education at the University of Marburg in 1605, received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Basel in 1611, and received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1617. The rest of his academic career was spent in Copenhagen, where he taught Latin, Greek, physics, and medicine. He was personal physician to King Christian IV of Denmark. Somewhat remarkable for a physician of the time, he remained in the city of Copenhagen to minister to the sick during an epidemic of the Black Death.
Scientific and cultural significance
In medicine, Worm's chief contributions were in embryology. The Wormian bones (small bones that fill gaps in the cranial sutures) are named after him.
Worm is also known to have been a collector of early literature in the Scandinavian languages. He also wrote a number of treatises on runestones and collected texts that were written in runic. Worm received letters of introduction to the bishops of Denmark and Norway from the King of Denmark due to the King's interest and approval. In 1626 Worm published his Fasti Danici, or "Danish Chronology," containing the results of his researches into runic lore; and in 1636 Runir seu Danica literatura antiquissima, "Runes: the oldest Danish literature," a compilation of transcribed runic texts. In 1643 his Danicorum Monumentorum "Danish Monuments" was published. The first written study of runestones, it is also one of the only surviving sources for depictions of numerous runestones and inscriptions from Denmark, some of which are now lost.
As a natural philosopher, Worm assembled a great collection of curiosities, which ranged from native artifacts collected from the New World, to taxidermed animals, to fossils, on which he speculated greatly. Worm compiled engravings of his collection, along with his speculations about their meaning, into a catalog of his Museum Wormianum, published after his death, in 1655. As a scientist, Worm straddled the line between modern and pre-modern. As an example, in a very modern, empirical mode, Worm determined that the unicorn did not exist and that purported unicorn horns were really simply from the narwhal. At the same time, however, he then wondered if the anti-poison properties associated with a unicorn's horn still held true, and undertook experiments in poisoning pets and then serving them ground up narwhal horn (his poisoning must have been relatively mild because he reported that they did recover).
His other empirical investigations included providing convincing evidence that lemmings were rodents and not, as some thought, spontaneously generated by the air (Worm 1655, p. 327), and also by providing the first detailed drawing of a bird of paradise proving that they did, despite much popular speculation to the opposite, indeed have feet like regular birds. Worm's primary use of his natural history collection was for the purpose of pedagogy.
Worm in popular literature
In more recent years, the real Worm (and his various accomplishments) have been supplanted to many by a fictional character with his name. H. P. Lovecraft created the character Olaus Wormius as a translator from Greek into Latin of his notorious fictional grimoire, the Necronomicon. Lovecraft also writes him as a Dominican priest, and misplaces him in the thirteenth century.
