The original drawings for the Historia naturalis Brasiliae of Piso and Marcgrave (1648)

Abstract

SUMMARY The Historia naturalis Brasiliae is the most important early account of Brazilian zoology, botany, medicine and, to some extent, ethnology. Its animals and plants were frequently cited by Linnaeus and later authors, but identification of the species is often hindered by the poor descriptions and woodcut illustrations. Much help can be gained, however, from a collection of contemporary drawings and paintings of these same animals and plants, many being the basis for the woodcuts. Officially, this collection is lost, after nearly three hundred years of safekeeping in Berlin, but recent investigations suggest that these precious pictures are now in Poland and that, with persistence, they can once more be made available to scientists and scholars.

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