Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.11861

    Natural history preparations

    Date
    1710
    Creator
    Joseph Mulder (1659 - 1718, Dutch) , Printmaker
    Object type
    Library reference
    RCN61717
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 230mm
    width (print): 172mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    nature
       > animal
          > bird
    nature
       > animal
          > armadillo
    nature
       > animal
          > insect
    Description
    Two natural history preparations by Frederick Ruysch presented in jars with floral lids. Figure 1 (right) shows a dry preparation of an unidentified bird on thistles, or teasels. Figure 2 (left) shows a wet preparation and armadillo foetus with Ramulus ficoidis. Between the two jars is the insect Nemoptera coa, or spoonwing, here referred to as Papilio turcicus.

    Plate 1 from the book Thesaurus animalium primus, by Frederick Ruysch (Joannem Wolters, Amsterdam, 1710).

    The illustration is inscribed above ‘TAB.I’

    Frederik Ruysch created a cabinet of curiosities in Amsterdam, Netherlands in the 1690s. It contained both human and animal specimens and was renowned for the imaginative presentations which blurred boundaries between science and art. The collection was purchased by Peter the Great of Russia in 1717 and transferred to St Petersburg.

    Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731), Dutch botanist and anatomist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1715.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Netherlands
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