Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10447
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A ‘hydra’
Date
1640
Creator
Unknown, Engraver
Object type
Library reference
24768
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 210mm
width (print): 340mm
width (print): 340mm
Subject
Description
Plate showing the ‘Hydra septiceps Ges. summo artificio efficta, & in Thesauro Veneto seruata’ (an ingenious artificial seven-headed hydra, from the treasury of Venice). From the book Serpentum et draconum historiae [Natural History of Snakes and Dragons] by Ulisse Aldrovandi (Bologna, 1640).
Object history
Ulisse Aldrovandi, or Aldrovandus (1522-1605) was an Italian naturalist and specimen collector, whose ‘cabinet of curiosities’ was one of the most impressive examples of this type of early museum collection. In the Serpentum et draconum historiae, published posthumously, Aldrovandi provided detailed descriptions of real snakes while debunking ‘monsters’ stitched together from other animal parts. This hydra, a mythical seven-headed water serpent, was denounced as a fake by both Aldrovandi and the noted Swiss naturalist Gessner.
Associated place