Hippolito Salviani

Hippolito Salviani (1514–1572) was an Italian physician, scholar and naturalist, noted for the Renaissance book Aquatilium animalium historiae, depicting about hundred Mediterranean fish species, some from Illyria, and a few mollusks.

He enjoyed the financial support of Cardinal Cervini (later Pope Marcellus II), enabling him to explore the Mediterranean coastline.

Cervini's death caused Salviani to dedicate the work to Pope Paul IV whom he served as papal physician.

1551 saw the appearance of Pierre Belon’s Histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins, illustrated by woodcuts.

[4] Salviani's book used copper engraving which was well-suited to depicting fish, and greatly superior to woodcuts with its lifelike rendition of eyes and scales.

Another theory is that they were drawn by the Italian painter Bernardus Aretinus or the Spanish artist Gaspar Becerra (who studied under Michelangelo)[6] and then engraved by Nicolas Béatrizet.