style and prey

thanks vintageprintable.swivelchairmedia.com.  Believed PD:US in good faith

This illustration of a black cat - "catus niger," reads the inscription below his feet - is so awash in style and attitude that it took me a few beats before I realized  there was a mouse under one paw.  Leave it to 17th-century Italy to illustrate a natural history text on animals with a mix of elegance and essence.  This fellow (by some other hand) is found in one of the works written by pioneering Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605), who among other things established Bologna's botanical garden.