Historia Naturalis Ranarum Nostratium, oder, Die naturliche Historie der Frosche hiedigen Landes (A Natural History of the Frogs of these Lands)
August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof, author and illustrator
Johann Joseph Fleischmann, printer
1758 CE, Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Germany)
Paper, hand-colored copper engraving
What would you guess this illustration depicts? These are frog organs, but artist and amateur naturalist August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof has arranged them like a set of jewels: hearts glisten like garnets, fat curls like gold wire, and ovaries shine like jet beads. Rosenhof’s depiction of the natural world is stylized, incongruous with the true appearance of viscera. Despite this dissonance, Rosenhof’s depictions are still reputable in amphibian biology. This book is known as one of the first to accurately describe amphibian life cycles. Modern biologists still reference some of Rosenhof’s illustrations as the examples of German frogs that best exemplify the features of their species.
Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie
View a copy of this book at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
Title page
Tab. III