Vosmaer, Arnout (1720-1799).
Description d'un receuil exquis d'animaux rares. Amsterdam: Chez J. B. Elwe, 1804.
Many authors of books on exotic animals never got very far from home. Arnout Vosmaer was in charge of the menagerie and the museum of William V, Prince of Orange. William actively imported animals from every continent for his museum at Voorburg; when the animals died, their remains became part of his natural history cabinet. Vosmaer published separate descriptions of many of these rare animals over a thirty year period, from 1767 to his death in 1799, after which, the individual issues were all gathered together and republished in this volume.
The Cock-of-the-Rock had been brought to Holland from Surinam, and the Kudu antelope from South Africa. The young orangutan was imported live from Borneo in 1776 and was the first living specimen seen in Europe. It proved to be quite different from the “Pongo” that Buffon had discussed.