Troglodyta Bontii

[Thesauron]

 

In the text Anthropomorpha (Menniskans cousiner, Cousins of Man) there is a copperplate of a creature that, in Carolus Linnæus’ (1707-1778) classification system published in Systema Naturae (10th edition), is placed somewhere between man and ape—Troglodyta Bontii, or Homo Nocturnes.

 

In the picture: 1. Troglodyta Bontii, 2. Lucifer Aldrovandi, 3. Satyrus Tulpii, 4. Pygmaeus Edwardi

 

Linnæus himself had never seen a troglodyte (or, child of darkness) but referred to witnesses who claimed to have seen such troglodytes and speculated that they might be mankind’s closest relative.

 

He engaged in correspondence with travellers to get more information and instructed the directors of the East India company about obtaining such creatures.

 

Linnæus never got to see any such creatures, even though he reportedly tried to buy an African teenage albino girl in London, thinking she was a troglodyte. But the reports from his students’ travels around the world replaced the fantasies of the myth. The items they sent back home revealed a daily life on the other side of the earth that was not all that different from life in Sweden—people built houses, cooked food, and smoked their pipes.

 

To this day people have kept looking for humanoids such as the troglodyte, and have so far not been successful.