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Moffett’s Theater of Insects

Printed as the last part of Topsell’s 1658 History, Thomas Moffett’s Theater of Insects was one of the first books given wholly to the small creatures. Its cuts are tiny and exact: moths with eyed wings, caterpillars and their chrysalises, beetles, spiders and scorpions. Enlarged to the tile, each becomes an emblem in its own right.

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