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

This book, published with two online 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 Paper Museum of Gems. 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.