In the late 16th century, Dutch beachcomber Adriaen Coenen scanned the beaches of Holland for interesting marine material and produced several illustrated manuscripts of his findings, covering anything from the commonplace herring to the exotic moonfish. Coenen's work contains the earliest European pictures of whales, naive but easily identifiable, which makes it a rare visual and textual source for the natural world of his day.

The Whale Book offers a representative selection of more than 100 pages from Coenen's manuscripts that deal mainly, though not exclusively, with whales....