The evolution of accuracy in natural history illustration: reversal of printed illustrations of snails and crabs in pre-Linnaean works suggests indifference to morphological detail

Abstract

Most natural history illustrations published prior to about 1700 were engraved as drawn and then printed backwards. This is noticeable, however, only for some groups of organisms, such as snails and some crabs, that are not bilaterally symmetrical. The most likely hypothesis for this is that most pre-eighteenth-century engravers, artists, and authors were indifferent to whether such illustrations were presented backwards or forwards. Illustrations of snail shells were not universally printed rightway- forward until the early to mid-eighteenth century, when standards of accuracy in natural history illustration improved as a result of the combined effects of a number of changes in scientific practice, including increasing collecting, publishing, and encyclopedism.