Zoological Illustrations from Five Centuries
Exhibition at the University Library Erlangen-Nürnberg (UB)
May 20–June 10, 2015
The University Library presented the most beautiful illustrations from its collection of approximately 1,000 zoological works, spanning from the late Middle Ages to the 19th century, in its exhibition “Fantasie und Wirklichkeit” (Fantasy and Reality). The illustrations trace the development of zoology as a science from Albertus Magnus’s Tierbuch, printed in the 16th century, through the encyclopedias of the “fathers of zoology,” Conrad Gesner and Ulysse Aldrovandi, to fundamental treatises on individual classes. Mythical creatures appear alongside real animals well into the 17th century and, in some cases, even into the 18th century, sometimes in the works of outstanding zoologists.
The collection consists of books from two sources. The first source is the castle library of the Margraves of Ansbach, which arrived in Erlangen in 1805–1806. The second source is scholarly libraries. The most significant of these are the libraries of Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber and Christoph Jacob Trew. Schreber was a professor of botany, natural history, economics, and politics at the University of Erlangen. His library comprises 150 titles. Trew was a Nuremberg city physician and scientist. The latter ranks among the largest private collections of natural science in the German-speaking world of the 18th century with 26,000 volumes.