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Section 1 Terra Australis Incognita

Amsterdam: Louis Renard, 1718?

Poissons, écrevisses et crabes de diverses couleurs et figures extraordinaires, que l'on trouve autour des isles Moluques, et sur les cotes des terres Australes, peints d'aprés nature ... ouvrage ... contient un trés-grande nombre de poissons les plus beaux and les plus rares de la mer des Indes ...

Rex Nan Kivell Collection; NK3704
National Library of Australia

 

The wonderful images in this book represent an important stage in the development of an empirical approach to science. The text, stating firmly that the etched images are an accurate record of the tropical fish to be found near Malacca-whose colours are lost in the process of pickling or drying-appealed to the growing demand for accurate eyewitness accounts. The hand-coloured plates, however, seem more a product of the baroque tastes and imagination of the artist-whose work readers would have been unable to verify-than a scientifically accurate record.

 

 

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