#conrad gesner

[heaveninawildflower]

Cat (1551) by Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) taken from 'Historiae animalium.'

Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon.

[acrosscenturiesandgenerations]

▪︎Pan vel Satyrrus Marinus, from "Historia Animalium".

Date: 1551-1587

Author: Conrad Gesner

Medium: Woodcut illustration

[slack-wise]

Conrad Gesner, Tierbuch, Frankfurt 1563

[cryptidchronicles]

A coloured German version of Conrad Gesner’s sea worms from the fourth volume of his Historiae Animalium. Gesner attributes the pictures of both of the the classic images of sea monsters to Olaus Magnus’s Carta marina of 1539. The dramatic power of the larger, more terrifying figure below it will dominate the many other images Gesner reproduces from the Carta Marina. The sea worms Gesner refers to are Olaus’s Great Orm, in which he described that “on the Coasts of Norway, there is a Serpent there which is of a vast magnitude, namely 200 foot long, and more-- over 20 feet thick; and it is wont to live and Rocks and Caves toward the Sea-coast about Berge; which will go along from his holes in a clear night in Summer and devour calves, Lambs, and Hogs, or else he goes into the Sea to feed on Polypus, Locusts, and all sorts of Sea-Crabs.... This Snake puts up his head on high like a pillar, and catcheth away men, and he devours them”.  Olaus’s “sea snake” and Gesber’s “sea worms” are later traditionally identifed as eels or flat ribbon worms.

[venusmilk]

Historiæ Animalium by Conrad Gesner Sea Creatures

Mythical Beast

[museumwales]

Happy World Serpent Day! Here are two sea serpent images from Ray & Willughby's 'De historia piscium' [1686] and Gesner's 'Historia animalium IIII' [1558].

From our Library Collections.

[ghoti-and-us]

Conrad Gesner - Historiae animalium - 1551 / 1558 

[smithsonianlibrariesarchives]

Tiny boat, big monsters–what do you do?

If you have empty barrels of beer, they sure do come in handy to create a diversion for any sea beasts you may encounter. Today is International Beer Day. Clearly, empty beer barrels will be available soon, just in case you care to do some yachting yourself! If that’s not in the cards, then read our rare book cataloger’s recent blog post, Beer on Board in the Age of Sail. Just remember to not drink and sail–never a good idea!

This woodcut illustration is from Conard Gessner’s Historia animalium, Liber 4 of 1558. (Find our 1604 edition in the @biodivlibrary).