Histoire Naturelle des Indes
68 of 122
Accession number: MA 3900
Credit: The Morgan Library & Museum. Bequest of Clara S. Peck, 1983.
Title: Histoire Naturelle des Indes [supplied on an 18th century title page]
Contents: 199 images of West Indian plants, animals and human life, with accompanying manuscript captions written in late sixteenth-century French.
Medium: Most of the illustrations consist of a black chalk underdrawing and a combination of pen and brown ink with watercolor; on some images selected areas have also been glazed with a gum.
Dimensions: Binding: 30 x 21 cm; individual leaves: 29.3 x 19.7 cm.
Binding: Bound or rebound in brown leather in the late 18th century.
Pagination: Penciled folio numbers (1–125) in lower right corner of each page were added by The Morgan Library & Museum. Folios 92v–93, 93v–94, and 95v–96 are fold-out leaves.
Histoire Naturelle des Indes
Chovlecqve
This is an animal that wages war on hares and rabbits like the fox in this country [France]. It has two glands like a civet cat producing a very excellent perfume which is similar to that of a sheep's droppings and the skin has a very good scent.
Chvpa (Armadillo)
This is an animal that lives underground like a badger. It only feeds on roots and no animal dares attack it since it retracts head and paws in a ball in its shell similar to that of a tortoise. Its meat is very excellent eating.
Histoire Naturelle des Indes
Illustrated manuscript, ca. 1586
Bequest of Clara S. Peck, 1983; MA 3900 (fol. 67v–68)
