Natural history was basically static through the Middle Ages in Europe, although in the Arab and Oriental world it proceeded at a much faster pace. During the Renaissance, scholars returned to direct observation of plants and animals, and many patrons began to accumulate large collections of exotic specimens and unusual monsters in their cabinets of curiosities. The rapid increase in the number of known organisms prompted many attempts at classifying and organizing species into taxonomic groups, culminating in the system of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
In modern Europe, the new independent professional disciplines that we all know were established: physiology, botany, zoology, geology, paleontology... Natural history, which had been the only subject taught by science teachers in schools, was repudiated by scientists and was relegated to being a beginner's activity. However, today it is more necessary than ever to recover its cross-cutting, integrating, open and collaborative nature in order to face the serious environmental challenges that are looming on the horizon.
Inspired by this wide and fascinating field of study, Carlos Alonso Pascual has designed this collection of Pieces of Natural History. The naming of each piece follows Linnaeus' classification system with two Latin terms, which are borrowed from the species they are inspired by, or from other scientific or cultural denominations. No piece in the collection bears the same name as a biological species.
