JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 359                                            

This is perhaps the greatest monument ever erected to the porcupine–of course it may be the only monument ever erected to the porcupine, but it is undeniably monumental.  This unusual image was published in Strassburg in 1604  in Joseph Boillot’s (1546-1603) sumptuous New Termis Buch (first printed in 1592 as a Nouveaux pourtraits et figures de termes).  It is a bestiary of sorts, a very curious book, offering real and imaginary animals together in alabastered, marblized, memorialized, architectural form, with the  great hope of offering them to fellow engineers and builders for incorporation into the real world.  Or perhaps not, perhaps it was all just done in fun, an exercise, an experience, an artistic creation wrapped inside  the fundus of a great Baroque eyeball. 

The end result is the Boillot produced some extraordinary beasts, wrapping them in extraordinary garments, surrounded by other wonderful animals real and not, and elevated to extraordinary heights.  The powerful unicorn, draped with the vicious but subdued lion; the ass, regal, judicious, pensive, thoughtful, kept in place, or warm, by a dragon. Then of course there is the porcupine, absolutely magnificently appointed with spikes  kept by by dogs, supported at all levels by the creatures.