COLLECTING THE WORLD: THE LIFE/ OF HANS SLOANE (PB)

Born in the north of Ireland, Hans Sloane made his fortune as a physician to London's wealthiest residents. He became one of the eighteenth century's preeminent natural historians and assembled an astonishing collection of specimens, artefacts and oddities - the most famous curiosity cabinet of the age. It became the nucleus of the world's first national public museum, the British Museum. This is the first biography of Sloane in over sixty years and the first based on his surviving collections.