The Paper Zoo

Aranei, or A natural History of spiders by eleazar albin

Eleazar Albin was an English naturalist,

described as one of the “great entomological book illustrators of the 18th century”. With great pains and labour Albin collected almost 200 species of spider for his book. At additional cost, the reader could obtain a copy that showed each kind “beautified in its proper colours”.

Edited extract from The Paper Zoo: 500 Years of Animals in Art by Charlotte Sleigh, published by the British Library, £25