This sumptuous book presents a selection of over one hundred stunning artworks, depicting animals real and mythical, from the prints and photography collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

The work opens with a preface from celebrated cultural historian Michel Pastoureau, who considers the symbolic importance of animals to our dreams and imagination. Each image is accompanied by a commentary from one of the BnF's expert editorial team of curators and archivists, which provides information on the natural and symbolic history of the creature depicted. Featured artworks include such masterpieces as Dürer's rhinoceros, Manet's cats, a carp by Hiroshige and Matisse's swan.

This is a truly beautiful and authoritative collection of some of the most recognisable and accomplished works of animal-themed art, from the medieval period to the present day.

Rémi Mathis is a curator at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. A specialist of old-masters prints, he has extensively published on this subject. He is also the editor of the French scholarly journal on printmaking, Nouvelles de l'estampe, and teaches at the École nationale des chartes and the École du Louvre, both in France.

Valérie Sueur-Hermel is a curator at the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris.

Michel Pastoureau is a director of studies at the Sorbonne, France. He is an academician of the Académie internationale d'héraldique and vice-president of the Société française d'héraldique.