Thursday 18 April 2024

I Guess You Could Call It A Compendium Of Life,

it is a 19th-Century Atlas of Natural History with over 5,000 pages,


illustrations courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, in the early 19th century, German naturalist Lorenz Oken quickly established himself as a leader in the Naturphilosophie movement, a type of Idealism, Oken’s seminal work Allgemaine Naturgeschichte Für Alle Stände, or General Natural History For All Classes, was published as a series of seven volumes between 1833 and 1843. At more than 5,000 pages in its entirety, the atlas depicts known species ranging from beetles and fish to birds and ferns. In many cases, insects or plants are shown in various stages of development, like a butterfly displayed alongside its larval and pupal forms, the work has illustrations engraved and printed by a number of contributors, the illustrations in many cases label them with both their common and scientific names, 







this entire atlas, Oken’s Allgemaine Naturgeschichte can be viewed in the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s digital archive, where you can also download tens of thousands individual illustrations, what a truly amazing work.


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