Plate X from The Ornithology of Francis Willughby, London 1678
Naturalist: Francis Willughby (1635–1672) of Middleton, Warwickshire, Fellow of the Royal Society
Edited and completed by: John Ray (1627–1705), who finished the work after Willughby's death at 36
Published: London, printed by A. C. for John Martyn, printer to the Royal Society, at the Bell in St Paul's Church-Yard, 1678
Technique: copperplate engraving on laid paper, with visible chain lines
Plate mark: 7.5 x 12.25 in (19 x 31 cm)
Sheet: 9 x 14 in (23 x 36 cm)
Three birds, boldly drawn and named in engraved script. At the top, Lanius cinereus major, The greater Butcher bird, stands over a dead mouse. Below it, Collurio seu Lanius minor, The lesser Butcher bird, stands over a second one. Filling the lower half of the sheet is Cuculus, The Cuckow, perched on a gnarled root with a spray of oak beside it, its barred underparts and long tail worked in fine line.
Both mice are deliberate. Shrikes impale their prey on thorns and barbed wire and keep a larder, which is how they earned the name butcher bird, and Willughby and Ray recorded the habit rather than the folklore that surrounded it. The cuckoo below got the same treatment. Ancient authorities held that cuckoos turned into hawks in winter, and Ray dismantled that idea by looking at the bird itself, which is precisely the change in method this book represents.
The Ornithology is the first true textbook of ornithology. Willughby and Ray threw out the folklore, the griffins and the barnacle geese hatched from shells, and built their arrangement on what the birds are actually like: bill shape, foot structure, size and habit. They divided them into land birds and water birds and worked down from there, and Linnaeus adopted the framework a century later when he wrote the Systema Naturae. Willughby died at 36 with the work unfinished, and Ray, his friend and travelling companion, gathered the notes, wrote the text and saw both the Latin edition of 1676 and this English edition of 1678 through the press. A complete copy is currently offered in the London trade at around £3,950.
Condition: very good. A strong, clean impression with the fine engraved line sharp throughout, on a bright, white sheet with untrimmed margins and only minimal toning. The sheet carries a large period crowned watermark, clearly visible when it is held to the light. The reverse is blank, so the sheet frames cleanly. Please see the photos.
This is an original 17th-century copperplate engraving, not a reproduction.
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