ILLUSTRATIONS OF LEPIDOPTERA BEING IMPRINTS OF IMPRESSIONS. 67 



to insects. The figures on the plates are life size and decidedly good 

 for the age, though of course rather crude — Papilio uiachaon, Colias 

 eclusa, Euranessa antiopa, dalliinorpJia hera and the larva of Stauropiis 

 far/i are all easily recognisable. In 1685 Johannes Goedaert's De 

 Insectu, &c., was published at Middelburgh. This, according to 

 Werneburg, contained coloured plates. The plain copies are interesting 

 as they show figures of imagines, larvae and pupje with occasionally 

 their parasites. Though not always true to nature they are easily recog- 

 nised. Madam Maria Sybilla Merian published her book on larvae under 

 the title of Der Raapcn ininderbar Yerivandelmui, at Amsterdam, 

 1679. Her copper plates show a decided improvement, and she 

 is perhaps the first to embellish figures of lepidoptera by asso- 

 ciating them with sprays of their food-plant, thus foreshadowing 

 the beautiful combinations which in after years were to delight the 

 entomologist. Her plate of Macroijlossa stdlatanivi displays the moth, 

 larva and a spray of GaUum verum. From the dim light that feebly 

 glows in the works of Aldrovandus and the other illustrators of the 

 seventeenth century, we somewhat suddenly emerge into the dazzling 

 sunshine which surrounds the masterpieces of Sepp and Eoesel, for 

 though Sepp's work is dated 1762 it appears that he began to publish 

 as early as 1715. In 1720 Eleazar Albin published at London A 

 Natural Hhtorij of En;/lish InsectH with copper plates (^" coloured fur those 

 ivho like it htj the author "), SiS he quaintly remarks. Each plate is 

 dedicated to some celebrity. The figures are poor and flat, appearing 

 as if the objects themselves had been pressed on to the paper, and the 

 colouring is child-like. 



Though Eoesel von Rosenhof, a miniature painter, is inferior in 

 some respects to Sepp, the two have much in common. They are 

 both types of the old school of naturalists, who made minute and 

 careful observations, patiently labouring on for the love of study, and 

 bringing a kind of reverence to bear on their work. In those days 

 the evil of synonymy had not crept serpent-like into the entomologist's 

 paradise. There was no need to rush into publication for the sake 

 of priority. These two artists dreAV their studies from the life. Their 

 plates are illustrations of living insects, not of dried cabinet specimens. 

 Eoesel began to publish his Insccten BelHsti(/un(/ in 1746, at the famous 

 old town of Nuremberg, issuing the work in monthly parts. The 

 chief charm in his copper-plates is the life-like attitudes in which he 

 depicts the insects and the wonderfully exact drawing of minutif^. 

 His figure, no. 3, on plate ii of the moths, is a marvel, and is still the 

 most correctly drawn figure published of the larva of Snierinthus tiliae. 

 Jan Christian Sepp's great work, Beschouirin;/ der Wonderen Gods in de 

 minstjieachte Schepzelen, of Xederlandsche Insecten, was published at 

 Amsterdam and the first volume dated 1762. A glance at the 

 plates, which, in this work, often exhibit the insects in all 

 stages, including that of the ovum, grouped about the food- 

 plant, makes it at once apparent that Sepp was an exquisite 

 artist and an accurate observer. His figures are not all of 

 the same excellence, but where he rises to the height of his 

 power, they are of surpassing beauty. On opening out one of these 

 old dull-looking papers containing a masterpiece, the eye is instantly 

 caught by the figure and an exclamation of astonishment rises to the 

 lips. Plate V, in the first volume (Bende) of night-moths, showing 



