Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.10133
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    ‘Figure d’un Elephant de Mer’

    Date
    1582
    Object type
    Library reference
    Tracts/X306/2
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 230mm
    width (print): 162mm
    Subject
    Description
    Figure of a walrus, viewed from the side.

    In discussing the animal the author notes that: “..se nomme Elephant de mer, & est plus gros qu'un Elephant: lequel habite en l'eau, et en la terre, ayant deux dents semblables a celles d'un Elephant...” (Named the Sea Elephant it is bigger than the Elephant: it lives in the water, and on the earth, and has two teeth similar to those of an Elephant...)

    Illustration from Discours d'Ambroise Pare ... a scavoir, de la mumie, de la licorne, des venins, et de la peste, avec une table des plus notables matieres contenues esdit discours (chez Gabriel Buon, Paris, 1582), f.28.

    Ambroise Paré (c.1510-1590) was a French barber surgeon and anatomist who served several Kings of France.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > France
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