2 Quotes by Kim Todd

But merian, so often able to slide by the rules somehow, held on to her specialised tools: her book of notes, her paints, her expensive vellum – carta non nata, skin from unborn lambs, that held the color like nothing else. She brought her mixing materials and pigments.

Often they were arranged according to the whim of the owner, as scientific classification was still in flux, new systems evolving all the time. Categorising a universe that shifted every time a new ship blew into port proved both necessary and a challenge... some classified shells as “knobbed” versus “wrinkled,” “the right lip broad” versus,“parallel lips,” or listed insects as “naked wings,” “sheathed wings” or “creeping.