Born in 1518, Conrad Lycosthenes was born at a time of great religious upheaval and discoveries in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Europe remained a superstitious place and the occurrence of natural phenomena and descriptions of new and exotic animals were taken as omens for the end of days.
Throughout Lycosthenes’ Prodigiorum ac Osentorum Chronicon, images of comets, earthquakes, and mythical and exotic animals are depicted as having been omens for catastrophic events throughout history, from the Original Sin of Adam and Eve to the present time.

With the advent of the printing press, scholars like Lycosthenes were able to compile accounts of these strange events and discoveries. By reusing woodcuts to illustrate the text, publications were cheaper than manuscripts meaning this form of literature could be accessible to a wider audience. One such reused woodcut in the book is based on the famous image of a rhinoceros drawn by Albrecht Dürer in 1515. An image which provided the basis for all scientific descriptions of the animal for two hundred years.
One of this book's former owners was Hieronymus von Münchhausen, the Hanoverian nobleman famed for the exaggerated stories he delivered at dinner parties and the inspiration for the fictional baron of the same name.

Contemporary alum-tawed pigskin binding, with rounded spine typical of German or French bindings of this period. Boards likely made of Beech.