#1719

from; a bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone by donna ferguson (the guardian). the biodiversity heritage library is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities. now its future is in doubt

one popular album is louis renard’s 18th-century book, poissons, ecrivisses et crabes, which was uploaded to the BHL in 2016. it features an illustration of a mermaid and other imaginary creatures mixed in among the scientifically accurate representations of real fishes, crayfishes and crabs.

“it was originally published in 1719 and is considered to be the very earliest known publication in colour on fish, yet about 10% of the species are actually completely fantastical,” says kearney. “it’s a really important part of scientific literature from the age of enlightenment, [when] people were going out and reaching parts of the world that had never been seen before. artists would interpret what people had told them and they would copy drawings from other artists who may not have ever seen the species,” says kearney. “they believed they were all real.”