Exotic animals in the representations of the 16th century Poland : exotic fauna in the treatise by Stefan Falimirz “On herbs and their power…”

The article presents and analyses the engravings with the representations of exotic animals illustrating the treatise comprised by Stefan Falimirz - On Herbs and Their Power... (Cracow: Florian  Ungler, 1534), the first Polish medical and natural guide. The article concentrates on 24 illustrations  presenting animals which were unknown in the 16th century Cracow. The text analyses the formal aspect  of these engravings. A very important issue is the variety of the representations - both in the way of  showing the animals and in the quality of the engravings. The attention is also paid to the connection between the form and the content of the illustrations - especially to the problem of accuracy in reference to real morphology described in the treatise - in the context of the engravers’ knowledge of nature and their ability to connect the information included in the text with the information from the available illustrations.