A Renaissance Account of the Flora and Fauna of the Middle East

This exhibit looks at a selection of illustrations from Pierre Belon's book, Les observation de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouuées en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, et autres pays estranges redigées en trois liures, written in 1553. Belon's illustrations detail the flora and fauna found in present day Turkey and Egypt. Also included is Belon's map of the Ancient city of Abydos in Turkey. This exhbit shows the author's, and by extension the French public's, interest in not only understanding the plants and animals that existed in the Middle East, but also how the inhabitants of these foreign lands interacted with the natural world in their everyday lives.