These wonderful illustrations of a broad variety of fora fauna are from German naturalist Lorenz Oken’s huge atlas of living things, the Allgemeine Naturgeschichte für alle Stände atlas (1833-1834) (General natural history for all classes).
Published over seven instalments, its pages are packed with illustrations from a number of artists, including from Conrad Kull, 1816-1897 , Adrian Schleich, 1812-1894 , C. Löffler, Carl Mayer 1798-1868 and published by C. Hoffmann’Sche Verlagshandlung and C. Susemihl & Sohn.
Lorenz Oken (August 1, 1779 – August 11, 1851) was a leading light of the nature philosopher (Naturphilosophie) movement, who speculated about the significance of life, which they believed to be derived from a vital force that could not be understood totally through scientific means. He elaborated Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory that the vertebrate skull formed gradually from the fusion of vertebrae. Although the theory was later disproved, it helped prepare a receptive atmosphere for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
As with Darwin and Ernst Haeckel’s incredible depictions of microscopic life, Isaac Sprague’s birds, Michel Descourtilz’s amazing mushroooms and Émile-Allain Séguy’s sensational insects, Oken shows us life forms in various stages of development, and makes an attempt to offer a classification of similar specimens.
Browse Allgemaine Naturgeschichte in the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s digital archive.
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