The absurd rendering of many of the animals comes about because the engravers/artists working on the project did not actually see the animals. They had to rely on descriptions and their imagination and, as was the fashion of the time, the animals were placed in contrived settings and often given human facial qualities, which only serves to heighten the sense of bizarre. And thankful we are too.

A nice collection of old engravings of strange beasts. Fits in nicely with the observation that animals from foreign countries appeared just as magical and mythical as dragons and unicorns of the classical romances did, as noted by Helen Cooper in her book “The English Romance in Time”.

I just love these old illustrations … [via BoingBoing]

Tagsoup: design, history, illustration