Historia naturalis Brasiliae, : auspicio et beneficio illustriss. I. Mauritii Com. Nassau ... adornata : in qua non tantum plantæ et animalia, sed et indigenarum morbi, ingenia et mores describuntur et iconibus supra quingentas illustrantur
Historia naturalis Brasiliae is a 1648 natural history of Brazil by Willem Piso, with engravings and text by Joannes de Laet, published in Leiden and Amsterdam for a scholarly European readership. The woodcut-style plates show fish and a serpent drawn in outline with cross-hatched shading, set against plain cream paper, which a designer could take as a model for crisp, hand-cut line illustration of marine and reptile forms.
