Saturday, February 17, 2007

Schäffer's Insects

winged insects


moths


water insects


grune armvolnpen insects


krebsarfiger kiefenfutz


schaeffer insects


insect engravings


schaeffer insect engravings


historic insect drawings


schaeffer insect book


insect sketches


schaeffer insect drawings


historic schaeffer insect engravings


engraving of insects


book illustration of insects


18th century insect illustrations


insect drawings from 18th century


book engravings of insects


coloured engravings of insects

'Abhandlungen von Insecten' (~1760-1770) by Jacob Christian Schäffer (Schaeffer) is online in its entirety at Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg. [NYPL has a few of these plates with the full details about the nature of the insects but in german]

Previously I posted details from this series
.

Schäffer was something of a polymath, publishing important works on mycology (with some of the first hand coloured book illustrations), ornithology, optics and prism making and most famously perhaps, his treatises on papermaking experiments using various organic fibre products prompted by a shortage of rags. [And: the 'first' washing machine publication (with images) which I believe was framed as fictitious letters by a woman about clothes washing - I wonder if his papermaking exploits gave rise to this 'invention'?] He was also curator of a renowned wunderkammer.

I can't find any site where Schäffer's work have been gathered together so here are a few links touching one way or another on his interests/publications: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix.

2 comments :

bioephemera said...

What a way to start the weekend. The first page is splendid, but those horseshoe crabs are the greatest!

pita ou franck said...

OOh !! your first link (Strasbourg University) fantastic big ,big size, many incredible books , I just start to explore, thanks to find this great link!
;-))

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