Facsimile and plates

Author(s)

• Pietsch, Theodore W.
• Renard, Louis, b. ca. 1678

Bibliographic Information

Facsimile and plates

（Foundations of natural history, . Fishes, crayfishes, and crabs : Louis Renard's natural history of the rarest curiosities of the seas of the Indies / edited by Theodore W. Pietsch ; 2）

Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995

Note

Includes bibliographical references (v. 1, p. 187-204) and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

First published in 1719 and exceptional in its day for its 460 brilliantly coloured copper engravings, Louis Renard's treatise on the marine life of the East Indies was dismissed in the 19th and 20th centuries because of its apparent embellishment, exaggeration, and even falsification. Ichthyologist Theodore W. Pietsch here re-examines this work and its almost surrealistic renderings and discovers a work of considerable scientific and historical interest. In addition to its importance as one of the rarest natural history books known - and one of the very few pre-Linnaean works on marine organisms to be published in colour - Renard's book provides a description of the marine fauna of the East Indies that can be interpreted in light of modern scholarship. In this work, Pietsch places Renard's original book fully in its historical and scientific context. He supplies a facsimile of the original text, a full translation with historical notes, and 100 colour plates with their legends translated and annotated. Pietsch also includes an examination of Renard's life and how he came to write his book along with a taxonomic chart that identifies most of Renard's illustrated specimens.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA27514487
• ISBN:
  • 0801847907
• LCCN: 93049411
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Original Language Code: fre
• Place of Publication: Baltimore
• Pages/Volumes: viii, 224 p.
• Size: 32 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : QL334.E27
  • DC20 : 591.92/57
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Aquatic animals -- East Indies -- Early works to 1800
  • LCSH : Fishes -- East Indies -- Early works to 1800
  • LCSH : Crustacea -- East Indies -- Early works to 1800
  • LCSH : Aquatic animals -- East Indies -- Pictorial works -- Early works to 1800
  • LCSH : Fishes -- East Indies -- Pictorial works -- Early works to 1800
  • LCSH : Crustacea -- East Indies -- Pictorial works -- Early works to 1800
  • LCSH : Biological illustration -- Early works to 1800
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA18250001