Today, a TBT in honor of cephalopodweek! 

This octopus hails from Conrad Gessner’s Historia animalium (1551-1558). This engraving is a remarkably good likeness—except for the depiction of round, rather than slit-shaped, pupils—indicating the artist clearly did not draw from a live specimen.

See this and many other scientific illustrations spanning five centuries in the exhibition Natural Histories: 400 Years of Scientific Illustration from the Museum’s Library, open now.