Avian taxidermy in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance

Abstract

Research on textual and pictorial sources from the period 1200–1700, especially in Central Europe, has revealed the existence of considerably more and earlier examples of bird collections than previously suspected, as well as of a variety of motivations and manual skills required for the preserving of birds prior to 1600. Many 16th century natural history cabinets contained large numbers of mounted birds, often of exotic species. This has been documented in some inventories, e. g., that of the cabinet of arts of Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg. However, it has so far gone unnoticed that numerous illustrations in the ornithological works of Gessner (1555), Belon (1555), Cyganski (1585), Aldrovandi (1599–1603) and in theThesaurus Picturarum of Marcus zum Lamm (from 1577–1606; Kinzelbach & Holzinger 2000) were made using preserved birds as models. In Gessner (1555) in particular, the great majority of the bird illustrations are of mounted or mummified specimens.