Natural Interactions in the Book as Art and Making Knowledge

Natural History

Portrait of Leonhart Fuchs in his natural history treatise De Historia Stirpium (History of Plants) 1542

Natural history as a discipline was born in the mid-sixteenth century. Two of its earliest practitioners, Leonhart Fuchs (German, 1501–1566) and Conrad Gessner (Swiss, 1516–1565) helped establish it as a field through their respective encyclopedic publications. Fuchs’ extensive treatise on plants and Gessner’s multi-volume series on animals set the standard of the printed natural history treatise for decades to come. Their books amassed the abundance of information available about specimens from various sources in one place. They reflected ancient and contemporary sources alike—such as Pliny the Elder (Roman, AD 24-79) and Olaus Magnus (Swedish, 1490-1557)—as well as their cutting-edge primary research and fieldwork. Unlike modern natural sciences, early modern natural history books included a wide range of information from a given specimen’s physical appearance to its moralizing associations and medicinal uses, and even its presence in legends, myths, and proverbs. Both naturalists were also pioneers in recognizing the importance of images to the encyclopedic treatise not only as a selling point but also as essential to a complete representation of their subjects. The images published in the treatises of Fuchs and Gessner were so successful that abridged editions including the illustrations alone were issued over the course of the later sixteenth century. Their visuals also influenced other natural history publications: French naturalist Pierre Belon (1517-1564) repurposed many of Gessner’s images of fishes in his book on aquatic creatures.

Group portrait of the draftsman, engraver, and Fuchs at work in Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium (History of Plants), 1542

Image and account of the Stramonium (jimsonweed) plant in Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium (History of Plants), 1542

Images of turnip and radish plants in Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium (History of Plants), 1542

Image and account of the elephant in Conrad Gessner’s Historia Animalium (History of Animals), 1551

Image and account of the otter in Conrad Gessner’s Historia Animalium (History of Animals), 1551

Image and account of the hedgehog in Conrad Gessner’s Historia Animalium (History of Animals), 1551

Image and account of the dolphin in Conrad Gessner’s Historia Animalium (History of Animals), 1551

Image and account of the sea serpent in Pierre Belon’s L'histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins (History of strange sea fishes), 1551

Image and account of dolphin and its baby in Pierre Belon’s L'histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins (History of strange sea fishes), 1551

Image and account of the hammerhead shark in Pierre Belon’s L'histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins (History of strange sea fishes), 1551

Image and account of the nautilus shell in Pierre Belon’s L'histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins (History of strange sea fishes), 1551

Image and account of the nacre (mother of pearl) shell  in Pierre Belon’s L'histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins (History of strange sea fishes), 1551

Encyclopedic treatises continued to be produced in the seventeenth century in great numbers. Against the backdrop of northern Europe’s colonial exploitation of other lands, new plant and animal specimens expanded the categories of natural history. European naturalists greatly capitalized not only on the physical specimens that had flooded the ports of London and Amsterdam from the Americas and Asia but also on the indigenous knowledge about them, which they used to advance their positions at home. Carolus Clusius (French/Netherlandish, 1526-1609) incorporated many such new plant specimens in his treatise on exotic plants, which continued to follow the encyclopedic format of its predecessors with variegated accounts and lavish illustrations. For other naturalists, the subject of the "foreign" could mean something supernatural and rather grim. Ulisse Aldrovandi (Italian, 1522-1605) explored the unknown facets of nature in a posthumous publication on monsters, magical creatures, and hybrid oddities of creation. At the same time, several natural history books and albums issued throughout the seventeenth century started to omit rich verbal descriptions and instead focused on the visuals entirely, a practice that continued and prospered well into the eighteenth century.

Image of a monkfish in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (History of Monsters), 1642. The fish had retained the human body of a monk in popular imagination for quite awhile, all because of its name!

Image of reptile creatures with human heads in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (History of Monsters), 1642

Image of a chimera Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (History of Monsters), 1642. In Greek mythology, the creature was believed to be a fire-breeding female monster with a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail.

Image of a marine monster in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (History of Monsters), 1642. Such representations of sea animals were adopted from earlier medieval depictions.

Image of an anthropomorphic donkey like animal standing upright in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (History of Monsters), 1642

Image of a several legged deer in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (History of Monsters), 1642. Interest in deformed lifeforms as oddities of nature was widespread in early modern Europe.

Natural History and Art

Nature and art were closely intertwined in early modern Europe. The production of the natural history treatise happened in conjunction with the rich collecting traditions of European courts. Princes, aristocrats, naturalists, and apothecaries amassed riches of nature and art in their wonder cabinets and chambers (Kunst und wunderkammer). Touch played a vital role in such collections: collectors held medals and coins in the palm of their hands, turned shell cups, organized drawings and prints into micro collections, and examined natural specimens. Hand-crafted wooden insects in shaking boxes imitated real-life specimens and manipulated walrus tusks masqueraded as magical unicorn horns.

Books, and natural history volumes, in particular, were also frequent items in these collections. The tactile appeal and origins of the collectible items undoubtedly invited a similar desire for manual engagement with books, which were also natural and artistic collections in their own right. In such collections—both in the space of the room and in the book—collectors could examine, cultivate and organize nature first-hand from the comfort of their studies. The adaptability of the book and the paper medium allowed not only for physical interaction with the book's contents but also for personal invention. Books can be rebound, expanded, reduced, and rearranged. Their textual and visual contents can be likewise enhanced, modified, and corrected. Books were sites of artistic experimentation and physical manipulation of nature where collectors, naturalists, and artists could insert themselves, observe nature, and understand it better through their craftsmanship.

Wonder chamber of Ferrante Imperato in his Dell’historia naturale (Of Natural History) from 1599. The illustration shows the diverse items that would inhabit collectors’ cabinets: books, gems, various specimens, from crocodiles to birds and aquatic animals.