MCCOY'S PRODROMUS ZOOLOGY

Frederick McCoy’s Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria

Frederick McCoy’s Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria, published in parts between 1878 and 1890, stands as one of the most significant works of colonial Australian natural history publishing. Comprising lithographic plates depicting the vertebrate fauna of Victoria — fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals — the Prodromus was produced under McCoy’s editorial direction at the National Museum of Victoria and represents the first systematic zoological survey of a single Australian colony undertaken at institutional scale.

The lithographic plates of the Prodromus were produced to a consistently high standard, combining scientific accuracy with the visual conventions of Victorian natural history illustration. The plates depict subjects drawn from the museum’s collections with a detail and precision that reflects McCoy’s commitment to scientific rigour, while the lithographic process used in their production allowed for the faithful reproduction of the delicate tonal qualities of fur, scale and feather that distinguish the finest natural history illustration of the period.

Among the most significant plates in the Prodromus are those depicting species of particular scientific interest or rarity — animals that were already diminishing in range and abundance at the time of publication and that subsequent history would confirm as threatened or extinct. The thylacine, the eastern barred bandicoot and other species depicted in the Prodromus plates carry an additional poignancy as records of animals whose subsequent fate gives them an importance beyond the purely scientific.

McCoy’s broader contribution to colonial science — as Professor of Natural Science at the University of Melbourne and first Director of the National Museum of Victoria — gave the Prodromus an institutional authority and scientific credibility that distinguished it from the privately funded natural history publications of individual collectors and amateur naturalists. The work remains a primary scientific reference for the zoology of colonial Victoria as well as a significant achievement of Australian natural history publishing.

Prints from the Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria are collected for their scientific importance, their historical significance as products of the colonial scientific establishment, and their documentary value as records of Victorian fauna at a moment of particular historical consequence. They represent an important and relatively rare area of Australian natural history print collecting.