4.43 avg rating — 7 ratings

"This is the most astounding collection of Natural History art ever collected, reproducing the entirety of the spectacular 'vellum collection' held by the Museum de Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Over the course of three centuries, a rigorous tradition blending meticulous, proto-scientific observation with a minimalist aesthetic that was already divorced from the ornate, chiaroscuro sensibilities of the Baroque. These standards were established by the first & greatest of the Natural Historians, Nicolas Robert. The materials he used, the style & size & format, would remain consistent until the advent of photography effectively put an end to the vellum collection & Natural History art in general. The vellum sheets were harvested from the skin of still-born calves with homogeneous coloration; the final product was a thin, translucent medium somewhere between parchment & leather. With a standardized size of roughly 12" x 16", which also happens to be dimensions of this massive fucking book, the portrait-format vellums are reproduced at full-size, while the landscape-format vellums are reduced & printed two per page. Given the almost 20 lb. weight & unwieldy dimensions of this 700-page monster, it's hard to envisage another route to reproducing the entire collection that wouldn't involve a second volume & a substantial increase to the already considerable price-tag. "

4.58 avg rating — 127 ratings

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"Finally, a new edition of Audubon's lesser-known masterwork has been released! This beautiful landscape-format tome reproduces 'The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America'. With less than 200 plates, it's a far less comprehensive survey than 'Audubon's Birds of North America', which boasts roughly 700 plates, and offers a remarkably extensive ornithological over-view of the American continent. But while the 'Viviparous Quadrupeds' lacks the scope & diversity of its predecessor, it nevertheless contains some of the finest examples of Natural History art ever produced. Just as Robert Havell deserved a great deal of the credit for translating Audubon's watercolor bird paintings into reversed engravings on steel printing plates, much of the beauty in 'The Viviparous Quadrupeds' can be attributed to the technical acumen & craftsmanship of the men tasked with converting the paintings of Audubon & his sons into lithographs. Lithography was still a relatively new & innovative printing technique at the time, but they did an amazing job of exploiting lithography's potential for reproducing a variety of textures, compared to the laser precision of the beautiful-but-limited line-work of engraving."

4.78 avg rating — 37 ratings

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4.50 avg rating — 3,893 ratings

"This enigmatic monograph by artist Luigi Serafini was first published in 1981, using a beautifully designed, thoroughly fictitious alphabet for the cryptic text & diagrams accompanying the hundreds of surrealistic illustrations blending dream-logic with the artistic traditions of Natural History. Using colored pencil, Serafini has created a thoroughly immersive modern-day corollary to the Voynich manuscript, like an alien encyclopedia documenting the flora & fauna of a distant star, vacillating between the familiar & the profoundly bizarre."

4.59 avg rating — 100 ratings

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4.78 avg rating — 60 ratings