Lily thorn and zebra swallowtail
Date
1731
Creator
Mark Catesby (1683 - 1749, British) , Naturalist
Object type
Library reference
18894
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 355mm
width (print): 265mm
width (print): 265mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Study of a lily thorn specimen, Catesbaea spinosa, referred to here as Frutex spinosus buxi foliis, showing leaves, flowers and fruit, and; two zebra swallowtails, Protographium marcellus, referred to here as Papilio caudatus carolinianus, as seen from above and in left profile.
Plate 100 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731). This was the first natural history book to use folio-sized colour plates. Catesby etched the copper plates himself before hand-colouring each individual print with watercolours.
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733.
Plate 100 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731). This was the first natural history book to use folio-sized colour plates. Catesby etched the copper plates himself before hand-colouring each individual print with watercolours.
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733.
Object history
The Natural History was originally published in 10 parts, intended to be bound in 2 volumes. It was the earliest western scientific description of the flora and fauna of North America, and its copper plates were etched and hand-coloured by Catesby himself.
Catesby’s trips to North America were funded by a group of sponsors, many of whom were colonial governors, charged with managing the British Empire’s territories, and their support of Catesby’s research can be read as an exercise in colonial control. As The Natural History’s parts were issued it also became important as a reference text to naturalists attempting to order the natural world according to the ambitious taxonomic systems that characterized the mid-18th century.
Catesby’s trips to North America were funded by a group of sponsors, many of whom were colonial governors, charged with managing the British Empire’s territories, and their support of Catesby’s research can be read as an exercise in colonial control. As The Natural History’s parts were issued it also became important as a reference text to naturalists attempting to order the natural world according to the ambitious taxonomic systems that characterized the mid-18th century.
Associated place