Woodcut Insects

This detail is from a 1658 edition of a work that began in the late 1500s: The Theater of Insects, or Lesser Living Creatures by British physician Thomas Moffet. Originally published in Latin, it was translated into English and appended to the back of Edward Topsell’s History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents.

That enormous tome is one of the rare books preserved by the Library of Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, where you can come get a closer look at a page of Moffet’s insects. These woodcuts of dragonflies convey as much personality as anatomy but are not whimsical flights of fancy. Although entomology was in its infancy at the time, Moffet’s work is notable as an early attempt to scientifically categorize insects.

The book is on display in the library as a companion to exhibits of winged wonders – The Collectors: A Life in Lepidoptera now open in Maximus Gallery – and the esteemed Butterflies Alive!