Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
600-1050—roughly one per generation), providing more insight on the Viking
Age.
Next you'll findthe museum'shighlight, the anatomical theater (accessible
from the fourth and third floors). Its only show was human dissection. In
the mid-1600s, as the enlightened ideas of the Renaissance swept far into the
north of Europe, scholars began to consider dissection of the human body
the ultimate scientific education. Corpses of hanged criminals were carefully
sliced and diced here, under a dome in an almost temple-like atmosphere,
demonstrating the lofty heights to which science had risen in society. Imagine
200 students (and others who'd paid admission) standing tall all around and
leaning in to peer intently at the teacher's scalpel.
Another floor down (on the second floor) is an exhibit on the history of the
university, which is far more interesting than it sounds. The Physics Cham-
ber features a collection of instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries that
were used by university teachers. But the most fascinating item is in the room
across the hall: the Augsburg Art Cabinet, a dizzying array of nearly a thou-
sand miniscule works of art and other tidbits held in an ornately decorated oak
cabinet. Built in the 1620s for a bigwig who wanted to impress his friends, the
cabinet's contents are shown in display cases all around. Find the interactive
video screen, where you can control a virtual tour of the collection. Beyond
the cabinet and to the right is a thermometer once belonging to Celsius.
Rounding out the collection (on the first floor) is the university's collection
from the Mediterranean: ancient Greek and Roman artifacts and Egyptian sar-
cophagi.
▲University Library (Universitetsbiblioteket)
—Uppsala University's lib-
rary,housedina19th-centurybuildingcalledtheCarolinaRediviva,isjustup
the hill from the cathedral and Gustavianum. Off the entry hall (to the right)
is a small exhibit of treasured old books. Well-displayed and well-described
in English, the carefully selected collection is surprisingly captivating. The
centerpiece of the exhibit, in its own room, is the sixth-century Silver Bible.
Sweden's single most precious book is so named for its silver-ink writing (on
purple-colored parchment) in the extinct Gothic language. You'll also see the
Carta Marina, the first more-or-less accurate map of Scandinavia, created in
