Name/Title
CE 1657 John Jonston, Aquatic Insects, Larvae, and Freshwater Invertebrates (Tab. XXVI)Description
John Jonston (1603–1675)
After Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593–1650)
From Historiae naturalis
Amsterdam: Johannes Jacobus Schipper, 1657
Copper engraving on paper with hand coloring
Plate XXVI
This plate from John Jonston’s illustrated natural history assembles numerous small aquatic and amphibious creatures in rows for visual comparison. The figures include insects and their larvae together with crustacean-like and other invertebrate forms, each identified by Latin names derived from the natural-historical terminology available to seventeenth-century European authors.
Jonston’s Historiae naturalis synthesized zoological information from classical authorities, Renaissance naturalists, contemporary scholarship, travelers’ reports, and illustrations. The organization of numerous organisms on a single plate reflects an increasing emphasis on comparative visual description, although the categories represented here predate modern biological taxonomy and do not necessarily correspond to present-day classifications.
The imagery belongs to the illustrative tradition associated with Matthäus Merian the Elder’s workshop. This impression comes from the Amsterdam edition published by Johannes Jacobus Schipper in 1657.Create Date
August 1, 2026Update Date
September 6, 2026
