{"id":266112,"date":"2024-12-06T19:00:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T19:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/06\/intricate-18th-century-illustrations-of-stunning-flora-and-fauna\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:13","slug":"intricate-18th-century-illustrations-of-stunning-flora-and-fauna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/06\/intricate-18th-century-illustrations-of-stunning-flora-and-fauna\/","title":{"rendered":"Intricate 18th-century illustrations of stunning flora and fauna"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The rough green snake (Opheodrys aestivus)<\/p>\n

Bodleian Library Publishing, University of Oxford, 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

These remarkable and intricate illustrations are the work of Mark Catesby, an English naturalist and artist who made numerous visits to North America in the early 18th century, recording the flora and fauna he saw on his travels.<\/p>\n

His work is collected in a new book, Catesby\u2019s Natural History<\/i><\/a> by Stephen A. Harris, an exploration of the naturalist\u2019s landmark treatise, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands<\/i>. \u201cCatesby presented his readers with illustrations of a wide diversity of plants and animals that were being discovered by Europeans in North America and the Caribbean,\u201d says Harris. \u201cMany of these were illustrated for the first time \u2013 Catesby became the de facto authority on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Giant hermit crab (Petrochirus diogenes)<\/p>\n

Bodleian Library Publishing, University of Oxford, 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Featuring more than 400 species, some of which are now extinct, several plates depict a plant and an animal in one image, such as the rough green snake (Opheodrys aestivus<\/i>), shown top, curling around an American beautyberry shrub (Callicarpa americana<\/i>). In a similar vein, a giant hermit crab (Petrochirus diogenes<\/i>) sits on top of what, writes Harris, is \u201cprobably\u201d an angular sea whip (Pterogorgia anceps<\/i>), shown above.<\/p>\n

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Mutton snapper<\/p>\n

odleian Library Publishing, University of Oxford, 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Pictured above is a colourful mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis<\/i>), and the deciduous plant Spanish jasmine (Plumeria rubra<\/i>) is pictured below.<\/p>\n

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Spanish jasmine (Plumeria rubra)<\/p>\n

Bodleian Library Publishing, University of Oxford, 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

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Catesby \u201choped to stimulate curiosity in natural history \u2013 beyond the confines of the library\u201d, says Harris. \u201cHis work speaks to modern themes of landscape and habitat change<\/a>, changing species\u2019 distributions and extinction and the value of traditional knowledge held by Indigenous people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n

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[ad_1] The rough green snake (Opheodrys aestivus) Bodleian Library Publishing, University of Oxford, 2024 These remarkable and intricate illustrations are the work of Mark Catesby,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}