The Seven Secluded Monkeys of Conrad Gessner

Abstract

Conrad Gessner is considered a major encyclopedist of the 16th century. His work is a benchmark in natural history studies. It is an enormous effort that covered the zoological information known until that century. In his publications, illustrations were a fundamental component that paralleled the textual narratives. Those noteworthy images followed different paths before being re-conceived as xylographies to be printed as part of those natural history books and presented to the public. A large set of drawings used by Gessner in the Felix Platter collection remained unknown and hidden for almost four centuries in Amsterdam. The colorful primates of this collection stand as reminders of an early history of the circulation of scientific knowledge and imaginaries of animals. They visually influenced further zoological works and were initial accounts about the diversity of this mammal group.