Amazing Rare Things March 14, 2008

This extraordinary exhibition has been selected from the collections of the Royal Library in collaboration with the distinguished naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

It brings together the works of four artists and a collector who have shaped our knowledge of the world around us. Leonardo da Vinci, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Alexander Marshal, Maria Sibylla Merian and Mark Catesby are diverse figures who shared a passion for enquiry and a fascination with the beautiful and bizarre in nature. All lived at a time when new species were being discovered around the world in ever increasing numbers.

Many of the plants and animals represented in the exhibition were then barely known in Europe. Today some are commonplace, while others are extinct.

Official Website: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=545