Author Description

Dutch apothecary Albertus Seba was a true collector, particularly of plants and animals. Seba (1665–1736) was known for his visits to Amsterdam’s docks, where he would barter with sailors, exchanging his pharmacy services for the latest exotic arrivals. He amassed a collection that drew the attention of Peter the Great, who around 1716 purchased the entire trove. Seba began collecting anew and developed a cabinet of curiosities—drawers and jars filled with thousands of insects, shells, and animals—that inspired his four-volume thesaurus of the natural world. The set, with striking hand-colored engravings, depicts the realm where science and art meet. Well represented in volume four, published posthumously, are numerous plates of butterflies from around the world. The twelve images here were selected from a copy of Seba’s Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio in the collection of The New York Botanical Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library.