Cyprinus Vimba/ Die Zärthe/ La Serte/ The Vimba

Title

Cyprinus Vimba/ Die Zärthe/ La Serte/ The Vimba

Description

Representation of a Vimba. Vimba vimba, called also the vimba bream,vimba, is a European fish species in the Cyprinidae family. It largely lives in the sea but makes an annual migration up-river each year to breed. The vimba bream was at one time classified as a bream as it also has a long anal fin, but has now been placed in a different genus. Its body is not as deep as that of the bream. It also resembles the asp but its mouth is small and behind the snout whereas the asp has a large mouth with the lower jaw protruding.

ca. 1785

Artist

Bloch/Hennig (1723-1799)

Markus Bloch was a German medical doctor and naturalist. He is generally considered one of the most important ichthyologists of the 18th century. Bloch is best known for his encyclopedic work in ichthyology. Between 1782 and 1795 he published his Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische, a 12-volume, beautifully illustrated comprehensive work on fishes. The first three volumes describe fishes in Germany and were entitled Oeconomische Naturgeschichte der Fische Deutschlands, the remaining volumes dealt with fishes from other parts of the world and were entitled Naturgeschichte der ausländischen Fische. The publication was encouraged by a large subscription, and it passed rapidly through five editions in German and in French. To the number of genera before established, he found it necessary to add nineteen new ones, and he described 176 new species, many of them inhabitants of the remotest parts of the ocean, and by the brilliancy of their colours, or the singularity of their forms, as much objects of popular admiration as of scientific curiosity.