These prints are a selection from the “Piscium Vivæ Icones,” a suite of 30 plates representing fish, reptiles, seals, and other sea mammals arranged in a seaside landscape. At the end of the 16th century, natural history depended on first-hand observation and accurate visual records, and depiction from nature played an essential role in the development of scientific method. Here, Adriaen Collaert organizes the marine fauna into similar groups, providing each item with its scientific name. The scenery in the background is drawn from the mountainous landscapes and buildings in paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and many of the ships also derive from engravings after Brueghel’s paintings. The shells scattered in the foreground are not identified by name, despite being faithfully rendered from nature, and play a merely decorative role. Their position in the scientific world was yet to come.