Adapted from Joannes Jonstonus’ Historia Naturalis de Quadrupedibus libri, Published in Amsterdam in 1657. This image is taken from a larger illustration that also includes two hippos. This encyclopedic scientific text was written by the prominent Polish physician and naturalist Joannes Jonstonus. Originally published between 1650 and 1653 in Frankfurt, with notable subsequent editions printed in Amsterdam, this text served as a crucial intellectual bridge connecting the Renaissance zoological works of Conrad Gessner to the formal taxonomic classification systems developed a century later by Carl Linnaeus.

Depicted here is a griffin (also spelled griffon or gryphon),a legendary mythical creature featuring the body, tail, and hind legs of a lion, combined with the head, wings, and front talons of an eagle. Because the lion was traditionally viewed as the king of the beasts and the eagle as the king of the birds, the griffin was considered an exceptionally powerful and majestic creature, ruling over both land and sky.

The motif originated in the ancient Middle East. It was frequently depicted in Persian, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian art before spreading into ancient Greece by the 14th century BCE. In Greek and Roman lore, griffins were famed for hoarding and protecting gold deposits in Central Asia. They built magnificent nests out of gold and defended them fiercely from thieves. Griffins were frequently associated with the gods, notably pulling the chariot of the sun god Apollo.

The inclusion of mythical creatures like dragons, gryphons, and manticores in this text reflected the scientific methodology and cultural reality of an era transitioning from medieval folklore to modern science. At the time, zoology heavily relied on scholasticism, a practice where ancient Greek and Roman authorities like Pliny the Elder and Aristotle were treated as absolute, empirical truths whose writings could not be easily dismissed without proof. Furthermore, early modern naturalists frequently misinterpreted physical evidence, citing the discovery of massive, unfamiliar fossils—which actually belonged to dinosaurs or woolly mammoths—as definitive proof of legendary giants and beasts.

This was compounded by the Age of Discovery, during which European sailors and merchants returned from distant lands with highly exaggerated, secondhand accounts that distorted real animals into monsters, such as a cheetah or hyena transforming into the human-faced, man-eating leucrocotta. Finally, publishers recognized that beautifully engraved plates of dramatic, legendary monsters added tremendous visual appeal and commercial value, turning these expensive volumes into highly desirable status symbols for the libraries of wealthy academics and royals.