Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm, Botanical Illustration of Pear Varieties, from Unterhaltungen aus der Naturgeschichte (1812)

Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm (1758-1811) was a Protestant pastor and natural history writer in Augsburg. His Unterhaltungen aus der Naturgeschichte, or Discourses on Natural History, was one of the most successful publishing ventures in the natural sciences in the early nineteenth century. First published in weekly installments that were eventually compiled into twenty-seven volumes over the period from 1792 to 1828, the Unterhaltungen featured popular descriptions of animals and plants accompanied by images by some of the most celebrated engravers of the day. The project’s intellectual intention was to show God’s creation in all its wonder.