Dissertatio epistolica de bombyce ..
A 1669 Latin letter by the Bolognese anatomist Marcello Malpighi, printed in London by the Royal Society's printers, on the silkworm (Bombycidae). Its numbered copperplate tables show close anatomical studies of the silkworm's organs, silk glands and spun threads, drawn in fine engraved hatching on cream paper. A designer might take from them the precise, diagrammatic style of early scientific illustration, with labelled letters, cutaway views and fibre-like linework.
