The Artillery Book

16th century explosives and fireworks

'Artilleriebuch' (BSB Cgm 909) by Walther Litzelmann was recently digitised and uploaded by the Bavarian State Library.

It is a ~500 page paper manuscript from 1582 filled with sketches of bombs, cannons and fireworks, for the most part. The elaborate titlepage advises (thanks NINA!) that Litzelmann belonged to the Bavarian Armoury or Arsenal at Ingolstadt and that the secrets of saltpetre and gunpowder production would be revealed within.

There are no references to the manuscript or the author online and I would speculate that it is most likely a compilation of designs and recipes from earlier sources.
[See George's detailed comments below]

Previously: combat.

Cuban Critters

These illustrations are from an atlas of twenty plates that constitutes one volume of 'Histoire Physique, Politique et Naturelle de l'ile de Cuba' (1838-1857), online via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

The BHL has a few more versions (or volumes) here : I think the fourth entry has all 13 volumes from the series, which had an overall editor/author in the Spanish botanist and anarchist, Ramon de la Sagra, who was the Director of the Botanical Gardens in Cuba.

Some of the plates from this series of twenty would make good colouring-in material to while away a child's rainy afternoon I suspect (there are plenty of outlined little beasties in the unseen balance of plates; similar to a couple of images above). At full size, the images are >4000px on the short side. At the BHL site, choose a plate from the menu in the left sidebar and hit the print icon to load an enlarged version in a pop-up window and right click to download. Easy.

Previously: Cuba.

UPDATE: The BHL blog Book of the Week feature for July 21, 2011.

Monstrorum Historia

Woodcut illustrations from Aldrovandi's 'History of Monsters'

Capreolus Polyceros

Monstrum triceps capite Vulpis, Draconis, & Aquilae

Monstrum tetrachiron alatum capite humano aurito

Orobonis Piscis effigies

Camphurch effigies

Homo Fanesius auritus

Icon Monstrosae cuiusdam Chimaerae

Monstrum alatum, & cornutum instar Cacodaemonis

Pseudophyseter

Monstrum Marinum rudimenta habitus Episcopi referens

Equus marinus monstrosus

Aper Marinus Cetaceus

Canis monstroso capite

Monstra Niliaca Parei

Infans [..]^, cum promuscide, & capitibus animalium

Monstrosus Sur marinus

Draco marinus monophthalmos bipes

Gallus Indicus auritus tridactylus

Gallus monstrosus

Monstrum cornutum, and alatum aliud

Monstrum hermaphroditicum pedibus aquilinis

To quote myself..

"Ulissi Aldrovandi (Aldrovandus) (1522-1605) graduated from Padua and Bologna Universities with degrees in law, philosophy and medicine and taught logic to supplement the occasional patronage bestowed on him by his cousin, the Pope.

During nearly a year of confinement in Rome while fighting a heresy charge, Aldrovandi developed a strong interest in the natural world. He began to collect all manner of specimens which apparently came to constitute a formidable natural history museum for those that visited him.

He travelled quite a bit in his quest for specimens and recorded his observations in some 4000 manuscripts, a number of which were published during his lifetime. His writings include studies in ornithology, medicine, hydrology, zoology, botany and, as can be imagined from the embellished and fantastical images here, a paper on mythical creatures as well (among others).

Aldrovandi was instrumental in establishing the botanical gardens in Bologna and his alma mater there awarded him the first Professorial chair in natural science."

• 'Monstrorum Historia' was first published in ~1642 and the cropped - and very slightly background cleaned - images above were selected from a copy hosted by the Digital Library of Strasbourg University. Although it's not really my thing, you'll find a large number of birth deformity illustrations in this volume, if that rocks your world*. (the book icon up top, on the left, gives thumbnail page views) The woodcut illustrations are by Jean-Baptiste Coriolan. [*You might also like this Guardian article: 'Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of Human Body' by Armand Marie Leroi, 2004]
• The AMS Historica site at the University of Bologna Digital Library has a number of Aldrovandi works, including the History of Monsters. {Thanks Raffaele & Andrea!!}
  
• Youtube user Shivabel has posted lots of rare book slideshows set to music (definitely worth wandering around their uploads) including 'Monstrorum Historia'.
• BNF's version of 'Monstrorum Historia' (possibly the easiest way to skim through the book)
• Previously: monsters.
  
• Aldrovandi works at Amazon.
• UPDATE : 'Monstrorum Historia' is accessible from the University of Oklahoma Libraries too (thumbnail page)

Bird Eggs

Hand-coloured engravings from 1818 by JF Naumann

Images from the 5-volume series, 'Die Eier der Vögel Deutschlands und der benachbarten Länder in naturgetreuen Abbildungen und Beschreibungen' by Johann Friedrich Naumann, 1818, at the Center for Retrospective Digitization, Göttingen (GDZ). (~Bird eggs from German and neighbouring countries - described and illustrated) [There are no further illustrations; there are two per volume. The images above were extracted from pdfs.]

Naumann (1780-1857) was a self-taught engraver and etcher and began his ornithological career by contributing illustrations and later, observations, to his father's publications on birds.

The younger Naumann followed in his father's footsteps and released many books on German birds, including his magnum opus, a 12-volume illustrated natural history of German birds. Naumann was awarded a professorship and honorary doctorate later in life, and he also co-founded the German Ornithological Society in 1850.

Previously: The Family Nest Egg.