The word antiquary denotes a type of scholar in the early modern period—to the best of our knowledge usually male—in whose hands formerly functional objects like coins, inscriptions or gems from sarcophagi, altar stones, documents, or manuscripts became historical “monuments.” The (modern) abstract noun “antiquarianism” thus covers a range of early modern erudition that is wildly heterogeneous both in approach and in the objects studied. Unlike the polymath, the antiquary…