54 Seba

Albertus Seba's curious creatures.
A most unusual collection of natural specimens.
Albertus Seba's "Cabinet of Curiosities" is one of the 18th century's greatest
natural history achievements and remains one of the most prized natural history
books of all time.

Though it was common for men of his profession to collect natural specimens
for research purposes, Amsterdam-based pharmacist Albertus Seba (1665-1736)
had a passion that led him far beyond the call of duty. His amazing,
unprecedented collection of animals, plants and insects from all around the
world gained international fame during his lifetime. In 1731, after decades of
collecting, Seba commissioned illustrations of each and every specimen and
arranged the publication of a four-volume catalog detailing his entire
collection-from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish,
corals, insects, butterflies and more, as well as fantastic beasts, such as a hydra
and a dragon.

Seba's scenic illustrations, often mixing plants and animals in a single plate, were
unusual even for the time. Many of the stranger and more peculiar creatures
from Seba's collection, some of which are now extinct, were as curious to those
in Seba's day as they are to us now.

Our superb, complete reproduction is taken from a rare, hand-colored original.
The introduction offers background information about the fascinating tradition
of the cabinet of curiosities to which Seba's curiosities belonged and an
additional annex, written by contemporary biologists, provides descriptions of
the specimens.

The authors:
Irmgard Müsch, born in 1967, studied art history, history and classical
archaeology in Mainz and Berlin. Her Ph.D. thesis from 1999 examines Johann
Jakob Scheuchzer’s Kupfer-Bibel, a richly illustrated scientific commentary on
the Bible from the early 18th century. She has published on art of the 18th and
20th century, scientific illustrations and Kunstkammer pieces.

Rainer Willmann, born in 1950, occupies the chair for morphology, taxonomy
and evolutionary biology at the Institute for Zoology and Anthropology of the
University of Göttingen. In some 120 publica-tions he has addressed the
phylogeny of insects, snail evolution, and historical and theoretical issues in
biology. He is co-founder of the Research Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology
at the University of Göttingen.

Reviews
Gestern nun habe ich erstmal Ihren Seba in den Händen gehalten. Was ist das
für ein schönes Buch geworden! Ich war regelrecht bewegt von dem, was da vor
mir lag. Ich hätte mir niemals erträumen können, daß ein in allen Details so
ausgefeiltes und großartiges Werk daraus werden würde - und daß es Verlage
gibt (oder besser: einen Verlag gibt?), der so etwas zu seinen Zielen macht. Ich
kenne noch den Begriff der 'Buchkunst' - in so einem Fall darf man ihn
wieder benutzen.
Prof. Dr. R. Willmann
Germany