Louis Renard
French, 1678-1746
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Louis Renard was born in France around 1678. To escape religious persecution, he immigrated to the Netherlands with his family around the turn of the century and eventually became a citizen of Amsterdam. Encouraged by his father-in-law, Renard became a publisher and book dealer. Between 1718 and 1719, Renard illustrated and published the first edition of his most famous multivolume work Poissons, écrevisses et crabes… que l’on trouve autour des Isles Moluques, et sur les côtes des Terres Australes, (“Fishes, crayfishes and crabs, of diverse colors and extraordinary forms, which are found around the islands of the Moluccan and on the coasts of southern lands.”) This book was the world’s first encyclopedia of fishes illustrated in color.
