335 Years On: Natural history of New France published

The tomes languished separately in France’s national library in Paris and in Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma

OTTAWA: An illustrated book describing Canada’s vast wilds, masked medicine men and a missionary’s taming of bears at the onset of European colonisation will hit bookstores on Saturday – three centuries after it was written.

The manuscript titled “The Natural History of the New World” and a separate codex of drawings were penned around 1675 by a fantastically imaginative Jesuit priest named Louis Nicolas. The tomes languished separately – one in France’s national library in Paris, the other in the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eventually, a Quebec art historian determined during some 30 years of research that both volumes were written by the same author and after identifying him, brought the two works together in one 550-page volume.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2011.