Marianas Flying Fox (Pteropus mariannus)

Marianas Flying Fox (Pteropus mariannus), page 3 of "Voyage autour du monde", Louis Claude Desaulses de Fréycinet (1779-1841).

In 1817, Louis de Fréycinet captained the Uranie on a journey to study the Earth's magnetism and to collect specimens from the South Seas. The result was a 17-volume report, "Voyage autour du monde". Its pages are filled with images of the flora, fauna and peoples of Australia, Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and islands of the Pacific, and depicted many plant and animal species that were new to European readers.

The plates are meticulously produced and employ a range of brilliant coloured inks that characterise the best of French publishing of the first half of the nineteenth century.