Image - Illustration from Willem Piso's "Natural History of Brazil" (1637)

Illustration from Willem Piso's Natural History of Brazil (1637)

This image is the frontispiece to the first edition of Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, a natural history of Brazil published in Latin in 1648. The text is the work of Dutch naturalist Willem Piso and German scientist Georg Markgraf. The Dutch West India Company secured a foothold in Northeastern Brazil during the mid-1600s Historia Naturalis Brasiliae is not only a record of the unique plants and animals of Brazil, it is also a medical text detailing the diseases found in the area and the medicinal plants and methods used by the native population to cure them. The text also introduced Europeans to the language of the Tupí, particularly their words for the plants and animals of the region, and to the basic practices of their culture. The cover depicts the flora, including trees and tropical fruits, and fauna, including Brazilian birds, monkeys, sloths, and snakes. It also shows the native inhabitants, several figures dancing in a clearing in the background and a nude male and female, the former carrying native weapons and the latter covered with a leaf for modest European audiences. In the center sprawls a light-skinned man spilling the fruits of the sea, including fish, crab, sharks, and eels, onto the ground.

Source: Courtesy of the Library of Congress