London: Thames and Hudson, 2007. Small quarto, colour illustrations, fine copy in dustwrapper.

Tells the story of the development of ideas about natural history as seen through the lives, observations and discoveries of nearly forty naturalists, from Classical times to the end of the 19th century. In their pursuit of cataloguing the natural world, pioneers such as Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin changed the course of science with their daring travels and groundbreaking theories. This book includes many who are well know, such as the earliest great natural historian, Aristotle; Carl Linnaeus, the man who brought order to nature; the great voyager and collector Joseph Banks; and Georges Cuvier, who established the concept of extinction. But others are now given their rightful place: Antony van Leeuwenhoek, who made his own microscopes and discovered bacteria; Nicolas Steno, who opened the door to the earth's geological past; and Mary Anning, "the princess of palaeontology", who had an amazing, self-taught talent for finding fossils. Many whose lives are described here were great artists as well as naturalists, and the book is illustrated with beautiful and precise paintings and drawings of birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, insects, shells, botany, fossils and rocks selected from the collections of the Natural History Museum, London, as well as other sources.