Samuel Niedenthal and the Legacy of Zoology in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the extensive collection of the zoological drawings by Samuel Niedenthal that has been preserved in Dresden. They were executed using various techniques and depict a variety of animal species. This article draws attention especially to studies of the local fauna. This legacy of Pomeranian zoology is unique and important given the destruction of the painter’s artistic oeuvre, but also because it illustrates development of science in his time. Niedenthal’s depictions of animals, birds and insects are the first such complete compendium created in in seventeenth-century Central Europe. The detailed and accurate pictures make it possible to identify species occurring in the area, representing the first records of them in Pomerania.

Keywords

• samuel niedenthal
• drawings collection
• early modern zoology
• animals
• insects