Thesaurus imaginum piscium testaceorum; quales sunt cancri, echini, echinometra, stellae marinae, &c. ut et cochlearum ... quibus accedunt conchylia, ut nautilus, cornu Ammonis, & conch univalvi et bivalviae ... denique mineralia ...

The cloudy eyes of this Dutch botanist show the glaucoma that eventually blinded him.

Georg Eberhard Rumphius spent most of his life in the Maluku Islands, part of a Dutch colony in the East Indies. He made extensive studies of local plants and animals, but was beset by personal tragedy and died before his manuscripts were published.

Books of scientific knowledge became more common in Europe during the 1600s and 1700s. They contributed to the field of collecting and classifying – important elements of the modern museum.