This book encourages the rethinking of collecting not as an elite, often aristocratic pursuit, but rather as a vital activity that has engaged many different groups within society. "The ? essays were selected in order to produce a broad polyfocal perspective that includes a variety of geographical (also non-western) milieus, motivations, [and] social and economic circumstances ? The questions raised ? address a wide range of collecting categories ? [providing] a wealth of refreshing perspectives on the topic.? In particular, through focusing on "merchants as collectors" ? [the volume explores] an anthropological dimension of the practice of collecting: When is a collection a collection? ?? What about the collection as a warehouse? The answers to [these questions] can be as diverse as the case studies here, like the reading of Early Modern Merchants as Collectors teaches ? The questions themselves will not become obsolete." --Michael Wenzel, Frühneuzeit-Info