Folio leaf from De Piscibus by Ulisse Aldrovandi. Bologna, N. Thebaldini, 1638. Page 561-562. Hand colour applied to the woodcut of the Ostracion — the boxfish or trunkfish — depicted in vivid golden-yellow with its characteristic geometric armoured-scute patterning, rust-brown fins and margins, and a distinctive pale blue eye. The verso header reads De Piscibus Lib. IV. Oltracion alter., identifying this as the second boxfish illustration in the sequence. The recto carries the chapter-opening typography for Book V (De Piscibus Fluviatilibus), with a hand-coloured decorative woodcut initial "I" depicting a chariot scene in blue, green, and red — an additional point of visual interest seldom noted in listings of this folio.
Engraved by Cristoforo Coriolano (Lederer, b. Nuremberg c.1540), whose woodcuts Aldrovandi himself praised as so refined they resembled copperplate engravings. Aldrovandi (1522–1605), described by contemporaries as the Pontifex Maximus of natural history, produced in De Piscibus one of the most exhaustive and visually remarkable fish encyclopedias of the Renaissance.
References: Nissen ZBI 70; Nissen, Fischb. 7; Westwood/Satchell 3; Huber 56.
Condition: Good. Minor staining to outer margin. Hand colour fresh and unfaded.
Folio dimensions: 35 × 23.8 cm (13.8 × 9.4 inches).
Folio leaf from De Piscibus by Ulisse Aldrovandi. Bologna, N. Thebaldini, 1638. Page 561-562. Hand colour applied to the woodcut of the Ostracion — the boxfish or trunkfish — depicted in vivid golden-yellow with its characteristic geometric armoured-scute patterning, rust-brown fins and margins, and a distinctive pale blue eye. The verso header reads De Piscibus Lib. IV. Oltracion alter., identifying this as the second boxfish illustration in the sequence. The recto carries the chapter-opening typography for Book V (De Piscibus Fluviatilibus), with a hand-coloured decorative woodcut initial "I" depicting a chariot scene in blue, green, and red — an additional point of visual interest seldom noted in listings of this folio.
Engraved by Cristoforo Coriolano (Lederer, b. Nuremberg c.1540), whose woodcuts Aldrovandi himself praised as so refined they resembled copperplate engravings. Aldrovandi (1522–1605), described by contemporaries as the Pontifex Maximus of natural history, produced in De Piscibus one of the most exhaustive and visually remarkable fish encyclopedias of the Renaissance.
References: Nissen ZBI 70; Nissen, Fischb. 7; Westwood/Satchell 3; Huber 56.
Condition: Good. Minor staining to outer margin. Hand colour fresh and unfaded.
Folio dimensions: 35 × 23.8 cm (13.8 × 9.4 inches).
