Fullscreen

Elephant

  • Icones animalium quadrupedem viviparum et oviparorum -
  • Author: GESNER, Konrad (1516-1565)
  • Gesner’s Icones animalium consists of an abridged text of his Historia Animalium, the great encyclopedia of the animal kingdom and the first systematic treatise on zoology of the Renaissance. The woodcuts are the first original zoological illustrations and the first naturalistic representations of animals to be published. In Icones all the woodcuts are in outstanding contemporary hand colouring. The well-known and excellent woodcuts were by Hans Asper, John Thomas from Zürich and Lucas Schran from Strassburg. The Rhinoceros is taken from Albrecht Dürer and the Wolverine from Olaus Magnus Charta Marina.