Nicolaas Struyck was born in Amsterdam in 1686, the son of a lutheran goldsmith. Known in the Amsterdam poorterboeken as a ‘matthesius’, Struyck was a leading mathematician and astronomer. He was a colourful character who wrote some of the earliest treatises on game theory, besides dabbling in the stock market and being among the first to accurately calculate the life expectancy of men and women. In 1716 he published Uytreekening des kanssen in het speelen, a treaty on probability theory. In recognition of his scientific work he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of London.

From an early age, Struyck was passionate about collecting insects and butterflies, which became his favourite pastime. He was convinced that the wisdom of the heavens was contained in the most humble creatures, and boasted of having identified no fewer than 531 species of butterflies in their natural habitat. Struyck was convinced - rightly so - that it would take centuries more to study and identify all the living beings that were mostly neglected in his time.

From 1709 onwards Struyck assembled at least six volumes of drawings depicting mostly insects, but also birds, plants and seashells. At least a few of these albums, before being broken up in the XIXth century, bore title pages. In 1719, Struyck made an album based on the entomological collections of Albertus Seba (1665 - 1736), an apothecary who corresponded with Linnaeus and created two reputed cabinets of natural history. (He sold the first to Tsar Peter the Great in 1717, before building an even grander second one.) Based on its format, our beautiful sheet depicting various stag beetles once formed part of this album. As a work of art made by a mathematician, the work beautifully illustrates the interaction between art and science in the Age of Enlightenment.