Plate A. XII, from "Deliciae Naturae Selectae"

Georg Wolfgang Knorr

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Knorr’s Deliciae Naturae Selectae, a study of shells, was first published in 1751 but reissued in various editions and multiple languages over the next two decades. Due in part to their significant reach, the books became a prototype for many later publications on naturalia. Knorr had based his illustrations on specimens from well-known collections of shells and corals, such as that of the wealthy Nuremberg physician C. J. Trew and the deacon August Martin Schadeloock. In most cases, inscriptions indicate the provenance of the specimens. On those plates where no provenance is given, the illustrations were likely drawn after shells from Knorr’s own collection.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art