Name/Title
CE 1657 John Jonston, Moose, Elk, and “Oryx” (TAB. XXXVI)Description
John Jonston (1603–1675)
After Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593–1650)
From Historiae naturalis de quadrupedibus libri
Amsterdam: Johannes Jacobus Schipper, 1657
Copper engraving on paper with hand coloring
Plate XXXVI
Plate XXXVI from John Jonston’s seventeenth-century natural history of quadrupeds depicts three large antlered mammals arranged vertically within separate landscape settings. The inscriptions identify them using the period classifications Alce. Elend, Cervus mirabilis, and Oryx, Cervi species. These names should not be understood as straightforward equivalents of modern zoological species; they reflect a natural-historical vocabulary assembled from classical and later European sources.
Jonston was a physician and natural historian whose multi-volume Historiae naturalis attempted to organize existing knowledge of animals into an illustrated reference work. Rather than being based primarily on Jonston’s own observations, the work synthesized information from ancient authorities, medieval and Renaissance natural histories, travelers’ reports, and contemporary scholarship.
The illustrations derive from the artistic tradition associated with the workshop of Matthäus Merian the Elder. The original volumes were published at Frankfurt between 1650 and 1653. This plate comes from the Amsterdam edition published by Johannes Jacobus Schipper in 1657. Because this edition postdates Merian’s death and its plates have a more complicated production history, attribution as “after Matthäus Merian the Elder” is preferable to identifying Merian as the engraver of this particular impression.
The plate documents a period of European natural history before the establishment of standardized Linnaean taxonomy. Its juxtaposition of animals under historically variable names illustrates some of the difficulties early modern authors faced in reconciling textual descriptions, inherited classifications, illustrations, and reports of unfamiliar species.Create Date
August 22, 2026Update Date
September 5, 2026
