Crustacean Journal — Polydore Roux 1828 Mediterranean Crab & Lobster

The Mediterranean coast in the early nineteenth century was, for the naturalist, a place of inexhaustible richness. Its rocky shores and sandy bottoms, its tide pools and deep channels, harboured a marine fauna of extraordinary variety — crustaceans of every form and size, from the tiny porcelain crabs that sheltered under stones to the great spiny lobsters that prowled the deeper reefs.

The front cover reproduces Plate 32 — Portunus tuberculatos (tuberculated swimming crab) and the back cover Plate 19 — Galathea strigosa (spiny squat lobster) from Polydore Roux’s Crustacés de la Méditerranée et de son littoral (Marseille, 1828–1830) — hand-colored copperplate stipple engravings with scientific names in French and Latin, produced under Roux’s direct supervision from freshly collected Mediterranean specimens. The Portunus is rendered with careful attention to its tuberculated carapace and swimming paddles; the Galathea — vivid red with blue transverse stripes, and despite its name more closely related to hermit crabs than to true lobsters — is one of the most visually dramatic crustaceans of the Mediterranean, captured here with evident pleasure by Roux and his engravers.

Product Details

• Format: Hardcover journal
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets) with perforations for easy removal
• Binding: Casewrap sewn binding — flexible and lay-flat
• Dimensions: 5.75 × 8 inches
• Weight: 100 g
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print

Perfect For

• Marine biologists and oceanography students documenting coastal species
• Ocean lovers and beach enthusiasts keeping coastal journals
• Mediterranean travelers and admirers of French natural history
• Tide pool explorers and marine life observers
• Collectors of vintage zoological illustration and 19th-century natural history art
• Thoughtful gift for anyone who finds wonder in the creatures of the sea

To learn more about Polydore Roux and the story behind these extraordinary plates, read The Creatures of the Shore on New Old Time.