The Hilbus Series
Penned by a famed artist/naturalist who was known for his wide travels is a series of illustrated books detailing vegetation, animals, and insects that he had studied. Each manuscript has a very detailed picture of the subject with appropriate labelings accompanied by a recourse on the observations and/or uses of the subject.
The bland titles belie the wealth that is hidden amongst them. His first book was the vegetation which led him into his detailed exploration of the insect world.
There are only two original, color volumes of each of the books. He did those 6 volumes himself. Keeping one and presenting the other to kings or libraries. From there they were duplicated, to a point, by the best scribes and artists that could be hired so that the other volumes are still fairly accurate (mostly). Some may be found to have glaring mistakes as any work that is transcribed may have.
Vegetation of the Lands
About 125 pages of detailed pictures of various types of plant life. Many pages hold multiple pictures with short descriptions on the facing page. The listings show any known medicinal or cooking uses as well as climate information and any specific regions where the vegetation is most prevalent.
Insects of the Lands
Hilbus was fascinated with the insect and this volume shows how infatuated he was with it. In this volume are some of the most detailed, multi-angled drawings in the collection. A surprising amount of insects are edible or used for their medical properties which are as detailed as any of his other listings.
Creatures of the Land
After seeing the detail a king hired Hilbus to create this volume which quickly became his most popular. In fact, it is the most poorly written and researched of the three as he was on a deadline for its completion. Even though Hilbus' rushed completion of the book is obvious the volume still contains a wealth of information and some beautiful renderings. Many only know of this single books existence and may not know of his other volumes.
Notes 18 volumes
These 'notebooks' hold some of the deepest and most interesting rough sketches of his travels including diary type notes and many sketches and information that did not make his public volumes. Many things he left out because he would not put something not thoroughly researched in his final cut so there could be literal thousands of extra sketches and notes available. He was not afraid to sketch mythological or rumored subjects from descriptions in legend either along with all information he could get on them. Each notebook is simply labeled in numbered order, Notes 1, Notes 2, etc.
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? Responses (5)
A closed series of books makes one fine item. Every somewhat literate world needs books of the encyclopedic kind.
this is good i enjoyed it
BUMP!
Actually, we were remembered of this nice little submission by a member of the Barbarian Horde, that complained about the name being copyrighted (Huh?). Since the person didn't leave any trace of his identity besides a little swearing, we are sadly in no position to verify the story. The offending comment has been deleted, please let us know if there is anything we can do for you.
Have a nice day!
Darwins writings transposed to fantasy. This would definately be a worthy resource to any travelling PCs.
What val said.