elephas anthrpogenus

Via Miss Cellania’s Links, we are treated to a nice reminder of how Western Europeans—absent any frame of reference since the fall of the Roman Empire—depicted reports, sight unseen, of a strange and formidable beast called the elephant (see also) in a classic project from Uli Westphal that collects and contrasts the license that different scholars and illustrators took with their anatomies from the Middle Ages through to the Enlightenment. Much more to explore at the links above.