Description

Nicholas Michael Oppel was a systematist, with a special interest in Reptiles, and an artist, as draftsman, painter, and engraver-the latter talent having led to his death. But unfortunately he had no possibility to make full use of his gifts. His taxonomic work in Munich was thwarted because of his rivalry with Johann Baptist Spix, and his "war chest", nearly 400 plates drawn and painted during his stay in Paris, remained unpublished due to lack of funds. During the last ten years of his short life Oppel had by necessity an "ordinary" life without brilliance, giving lessons and painting or engraving objects of natural history for some colleagues.

This volume examines Oppel's work on Crocodilians, particularly his illustrations. Oppel's illustrations are compared to contemporary and modern illustrations of the same species with special emphasis on their scientific accuracy. In addition, a complete facsimile of Tiedemann, Oppel, & Liboschitz (1817) Naturgeschichte der Amphibien. Erstes Heft. Gattung Krokodil is reprinted, including the fifteen plates which were published separately by the authors. This book and it's atlas, are exceedingly rare and have not been reprinted previously.