Do Not Mess With Fish 260,

and you thought fish were fun!

well the illustrator did with these! all images courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library,

they are from and this is the official title, Fishes, crayfish and crabs, of various colors and extraordinary figures, which one finds around the Moluccas islands and on the coasts of the Austral lands, 

let me explain, In the early 18th century, publisher, bookseller, and apparent fish enthusiast Louis Renard compiled the seminal compendium of color-illustrated ichthyological studies,

the volume contains more than 450 species rendered in vibrant hues that, while somewhat anatomically accurate, feature embellishments in color and characteristics,

many of the features found on the fish look like they belong on birds or even animals,

and some seem so psychotic, psychedelic,

 

a digital copy of Renard’s work, is available in the Biodiversity Heritage Library, an incredible open-access digital archive, overall, the library estimates that about 9 percent of the illustrations are fabricated, I would have thought a tad more, but there it is,

 the tome was published in three editions, and only 16 of the initial printing, which happened between 1718 and 1719, are known to exist. Thirty-four copies of the second version from 1754 remain, which is also the iteration shown here. There are just six books left from the third printing in 1782, you can see the entire compendium in the digital library and to enjoy the vivid illustrations off-screen, Maria Popova, of Brain Pickings, is selling masks and prints of the enhanced creatures, I do collect in a small way books on fish and fish keeping, but this one is well out of my grasp, so it is nice to see that I can at least view it online, many thanks to the Biodiversity Heritage Library.