The great voyages of discovery of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries brought European artists face to face with new and exotic plants and animals, and created an intense interest in the way nature was investigated and recorded. In Amazing Rare Things, Sir David Attenborough leaves the here-and-now to explore the history of natural history instead.Joining expert curators from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle he explores the contributions of four great artists and one pre-eminent collector to this era of extraordinary scientific advances.Profusely illustrated throughout, this book is organised around a selection of exquisite drawings and watercolours by Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander Marshal, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Mark Catesby; and the works collected by Cassiano dal Pozzo for his immense Paper Museum'. These beautiful images all held in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle reflect each artist's engagement with the natural world, from Renaissance Italy and England, and on to the New World of the Americas.