Thomas Martyn's The Universal Conchologist, 1789

The following is an extract from the Preface- 

The work will commence with the figures of shells that have been collected under the command of Captains Byron, Wallace, Cook, and others in the different voyages to the South Seas. 

The first and chief duty incumbent on the conchologist is a scrupulous and minute attention to the figure, mouth, extremities, and convolutions of those shells...The long descriptions and details of the generation and properties of shells, given by most writers of conchology, are wholly omitted here; and the utmost care has been taken that each figure, by being an exact and faithful transcript from nature, shall be sufficiently explanatory of the subject which it represents. 

The superior style in which the work now offered to the public is executed will best appear by comparing it with all others extant either in this, or any other branch of natural history. The drawings will be minutely correct; the engravings will consist merely of a delicate outline; to this the utmost skill and labour of the painter will be added, in order to produce from the whole the full effect of that beautiful contour, rich colouring, and bold relief, which the subject so peculiarly demands, and which the art of painting alone can properly supply.

Little is known of Thomas Martyn but here is one aspect of his character from the University of Glasgow- 

Martyn wanted to gain a good reputation as an author. In order to achieve such recognition, he sent presentation copies of The Universal Conchologist to most of the crowned heads of Europe. He consequently became the happy recipient of medals from the pope, the emperor of Germany, and the King of Naples among others4. Martyn then used engravings of the medals and letters that he received in thanks to advertise his impending publications; in this way, he encouraged interest in them, ensuring that there were eager buyers waiting for their completion. One such endorsement came from Baron Ignatius Born, who replied to Martyn on behalf of the German emperor saying: "Natural history would make a rapid progress, if we could have paintings of all the organised bodies in nature executed with equal accuracy and fidelity. But we want artists, who are at the same time connoisseurs in natural history, to execute the whole with proper precision"

Reference

 University of Glasgow, Special Collections Department, Book of the Month, 2009