The 'Deer-goat', 1607

The 'Deer-goat', 1607. Edward Topsell (1572-1625?) describes this as 'Of the first kind of Tragelaphus, which may be called a deer-goat'. He also called it a female Hart. Woodcut from Topsell's 'The Historie of foure-footed beastes', published in London in 1607. Topsell's main source was 'Historiae animalium' by Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) published in 1551. He translated and edited Gesner's text, adding his own. The engravings are exact reproductions of those in Gesner's work. Topsell's work was the first major book on animals printed in Britain in English. It summarized all real and mythical zoological knowledge collected since antiquity, but it was soon rendered obsolete by new discoveries. ©SSPL/Science Museum