A sixteenth-century naturalist

A nice image from the blog, Giornale Nuovo. Click here to see the full-size scan; it's worth the time it takes to load. There are more excellent images on the Giornale Nuovo blog. The artist was Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605). The blog author says, "Aldrovandi’s magnum opus, only partially realised during his lifetime, was to be an encyclopædic publication encompassing everything that was then known about natural history. The work’s illustrations were to be drawn from the hundreds of watercolour paintings that Aldrovandi had commissioned from a number of artists, over a period of some thirty years. As part of their on-line presentation of Aldrovandi’s work, the University of Bologna have scanned a large number of these watercolours, a few of which I have selected for display here."