About the Volumes: 

In the middle of the 16th century, the Doctor and Renaissance Man, Johnnes Jonston wrote his magnum opus, an encyclopedic overview of the history of animals, which was considered to be the standard work of zoology for a century.

For his HISTORIAE NATURALIS, Jonston planned a comprehensive illustrated depiction of the world of animals, plants, and people.

Titled in short Historia Naturalis Animalium, it collects numerous descriptions of animals in five books. Tables with wonderful copperplate engravings by Matthäus Merian the Younger illustrate the zoological work.

In the first volume of the work, which arose in the year 1650, Jonston concerns himself with fish and aquatic mammals. This “most broadly disseminated zoological handbook” experienced numerous republications and translations into other languages, still offering a magnificent and often curious glimpse into the world of zoology today.

The Historia Naturalis animalium was printed from 1650 to 1653 in the publishing house of Matthäus Merian the Younger in Frankfurt am Main.Merian (1621–1687), who took over the famous atelier of his father Matthäus Merian the Elder, as copperplate engraver was also responsible for the artistic design of the editions. The marvelous illustrations, colorfully illustrated moreover, lend the sophisticated publication its final touches and are surely a reason for the exceptional popularity of the Historia Naturalis across Europe.

Volume 3, which included De Insectis had 28 copper plates depicting countless butterflies, dragonflies and striking insects. This is the Tab. XIIII.

About the Author:

John Jonston (1603-1675) was a Polish-born of Scottish descent, Doctor of Medicine and a well-travelled and prolific writer on natural history, who published numerous works, including "Historiae naturalis" in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1646 to 1662. He authored over fifteen works on nature and medicine. The most famous was this one, Historiae naturalis, about the animal kingdom. It had these gorgeous engravings by Matthaus Merian.

About the Artist:

Matthäus Merian the Younger (1621–1687) was a Swiss engraver and portrait painter, son of Matthäus Merian der Ältere (or "Matthew", "the Elder", or "Sr."; 1593-1650 who was a Swiss-born engraver in Frankfurt, where he also ran a publishing house, a member of the patrician Basel Merian family, father to Maria Sybilla Merian, the famed Natural History Artist). 

The Younger was the half-brother of Maria Sybilla Merian, who is famous for her magnicent Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium of1705, and the brother of Caspar Merian, who also worked on these volumes. 

About the Plates:

Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved on Copper or steel which was hand-mined, smelted & rolled, printed onto handmade cotton rag paper, inked & colored with hand-ground pigments individually by hand, & they were usually hand sewn into handmade leather-bound books.

A set of the full volumes of this work containing all the plates is on the market listed at $24,000 USD.

Condition:

Appears to be in good condition for a centuries-old engraving. The hand-coloring appears to remain sharp & brilliant. Typical light age-toning & character for a print this old. Printed on light Chain-Lined paper with plate-marks (indentations from the original copper plate being embossed into the paper from the intaglio press). Artifacts from the printing & papermaking process appear original as-issued.

These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book & handled as a page in a volume, light markings in margins, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.

Text Page(s): This one doesn't come with text page(s). (Please note, the scans of the title page is included for reference, it's not part of this listing...)

About These Creatures:

• The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 35,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change in recent years. Several groups formerly treated as subfamilies have been elevated to family rank (e.g., Bolboceratidae, Geotrupidae, Glaresidae, Glaphyridae, Hybosoridae, Ochodaeidae, and Pleocomidae), and some reduced to lower ranks. The subfamilies listed in this article are in accordance with those in Catalog of Life (2023).
• In Ancient Egypt, the dung beetle now known as Scarabaeus sacer (formerly Ateuchus sacer) was revered as sacred. Egyptian amulets representing the sacred scarab beetles were traded throughout the Mediterranean world.

Shipping: Multiple prints combine into one USPS Flat-Rate envelope. If you'd like to combine & need more time to choose, please send a message & we'll do our best to oblige. If you're assessed multiple shipping for one combined package, we'll endeavor to refund any overage asap.

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