Folio leaf from De Piscibus by Ulisse Aldrovandi. Bologna, N. Thebaldini, 1638. Page 693-694. Hand colour applied to the principal woodcut depicting the Pristis siue Serra Rond. — the sawfish — rendered in vivid blue with a distinctive yellow eye. The verso carries two uncoloured woodcuts documenting the serrated rostra of two Pristis specimens, annotated rostrum col. cinereo and alium col. ferrug., describing their ash-grey and rust-coloured bills respectively.
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 — a work in which scientific rigor and artistic ambition were inseparable.
References: Nissen ZBI 70; Nissen, Fischb. 7; Westwood/Satchell 3; Huber 56.
Condition: Good. Some show-through from verso woodcuts visible in raking light, consistent with the period paper. Hand colour fresh and unfaded.
Folio dimensions: 35 × 23.9 cm.
Folio leaf from De Piscibus by Ulisse Aldrovandi. Bologna, N. Thebaldini, 1638. Page 693-694. Hand colour applied to the principal woodcut depicting the Pristis siue Serra Rond. — the sawfish — rendered in vivid blue with a distinctive yellow eye. The verso carries two uncoloured woodcuts documenting the serrated rostra of two Pristis specimens, annotated rostrum col. cinereo and alium col. ferrug., describing their ash-grey and rust-coloured bills respectively.
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 — a work in which scientific rigor and artistic ambition were inseparable.
References: Nissen ZBI 70; Nissen, Fischb. 7; Westwood/Satchell 3; Huber 56.
Condition: Good. Some show-through from verso woodcuts visible in raking light, consistent with the period paper. Hand colour fresh and unfaded.
Folio dimensions: 35 × 23.9 cm.
