This rare and very beautiful fish print woodcut engraving of a Hammerhead shark, with superb later hand colouring, is from Conrad Gesner’s outstanding work on fishes

"Icones  animalium aquatilium" 

Zurich 1560 

Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) a Swiss author and physician, is considered one of the most famous and important naturalists and scholars of his day, and one of the founders of modern zoology

With new additional woodcuts, this exceptional volume contains many illustrations after the great authors of sixteenth century iconology, Belon, Rondelet and Salviani 

It also includes illustrations based on Gesner’s own observations of the fishes of Venice, England, and Germany, and newly discovered species of the New World                                          

 "The 'Icones' are a short extract from the Historia animalium, containg also the woodcuts of this work with a short text.  They are very much more rare than the complete edition."                                 

(AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY - COMPILED AND EDITED BY CASEY A. WOOD, M.D., LL.D.)