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Why were 17th-century collections of curiosities called museums?

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Gallery room at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, with framed portraits and group paintings on the walls and a bench in the center of the wood floor. — museum Interior of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

In the 17th century, the term museum was increasingly used in Europe to describe private collections of curiosities. This usage evolved from the classical Greek mouseion—a "seat of the Muses" or a place of philosophical contemplation—which had been revived in the 15th century to denote the concept of comprehensiveness in private collections, such as those of the Medici family.1

By the 1600s, the label was applied to specific arrays of objects, such as the collection of Ole Worm in Copenhagen or the collection of John Tradescant in Lambeth, which was documented in the 1656 catalog Musaeum Tradescantianum. These collections often included a wide variety of items, ranging from natural history specimens to ethnographic and art materials, which were frequently stored in specialized furniture known as cabinets.123

The transition of these collections into institutions occurred as owners sought to ensure the continuity of their holdings beyond the family unit, eventually leading to the establishment of public-facing entities like the Ashmolean Museum in 1683.14