Neither Fish Nor Fowl : The Thurmond Collection as Both Repository and Records Center and its Effect on the Appraisal Process

An exhibition entitled The Age of the Marvelous, 1 sought to explain the fascination of sixteenth and seventeenth century European culture with the unusual, rare, and exotic-whether natural or man-made. Among the paintings, natural specimens, rare books, maps, and manuscripts were displayed illustrations of wondrous animals. One common characteristic of these illustrations, whether of mythical or freshly discovered animals from the New World, was that the creature illustrated was often depicted as made up of parts from several different animals