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In his catalogue “Inventarium Über die Churfürstliche Sächsische Kunstcammern in Schloß und Vestung Dreßden. Verneuert und aufgericht den 4 Augusti Anno 1640”, Hänsel describes the seventh room ‘which was named mining chamber’. Häsel completed the regrouping of the collection in 1632, which had been commenced under Brunn. On his side were Kaspar Ußlaub, Peter Probsthain, and from 1627, Theodosius Häsel(1595–1658), Brunn’s successor. He oversaw the collection in a scientific vision and undertook a realignment. He used this valuable building and decoration material for example for the Lusthaus on the Jungfernbastei, for the main altar of the Sophienkirche (St Sophia’s Church) in Dresden and for the decoration of the Fürstenkapelle in the Freiberger Dom (Freiberg Cathedral).Ī major change can be noticed following the employment of the mathematician Lucas Brunn (died in 1628) as the Art Chamber inspector in 1619. Nosseni received the lifetime privilege to search for marble, alabaster, serpentine, crystals and amethyst in the electorate. Apart from the inventory of 15, additional 14 pieces consisting of alabaster from Weißensee, marble from the Erzgebirge and serpentine make up the collection. After 1587, Nosseni only added a few further rocks to the Art Chamber. It was stored in the fifth room of the Art Chamber ‘at the library’ ‘on a long table with a green linen sheet’. Ußlaub established the inventory in 1587, after inducement by the inheritors of Elector August and for the first time described out of the ten thousand specified objects, a 43 piece rock collection. The inventory of David Ußlaub’s Art Chamber claims that the recently unverifiable samples of Nosseni compose the cadre of the Mineral Cabinet. These samples were suitable for sculpting and contained white marble from Sandersberg between Rauenstein and Lengefeld in the Erzgebirge, black marble from Kalkgrün, red mable from Wildenfels and white marble from Crottendorf in the Erzgebirge. The reference samples were given to Nosseni’s employer and precisely and scientifically labeled and marked, something which was unusual for the late 16th century. Nosseni, an experienced master-builder, sculptor and architect from Lugano, was committed to the Saxonian service since 1575 and searched through the Erzgebirge, as well as through the northern adjacent foreland after payable and noble minerals or rocks.Įspecially between 15 he was able to identify important deposits. The history of the petrographic collections dates back to the Art Chamber invested by Elector August (1526–1586) in 1560: around 1587, the collection of Saxonian rocks of the italian court sculptor and builder Giovanni Maria Nosseni (1544–1620) contributed an essential portion of the geoscientific collection. Together with the original hand specimens of whom the thin sections were made, it is stored in the museum’s collections till this day. This exhibition object represents a masterpiece of preparation work of that time. It was manufactured by the company Fuess in Berlin in 1898 at Ernst Kalkowsky’s instance, director of the Mineralogical-geological Museum. Detail of a plate containing 24 large thin sections with a size of 90 x 110 mm each for microscopical analysis of Saxonian and Bohemian rock material.