This woodcut of a dragon, created by Geoffroy Ballain and Jean de Gourmont for Jacques Grévin's publications on poisons and venomous creatures, exemplifies how mythological beings continued to appear in early scientific texts. Published in Deux livres des venins (1568) and later in De venenis libri duo (1571), this image demonstrates the complex relationship between empirical observation and mythological thinking during the transitional period of early modern science.

The dragon's inclusion in texts discussing natural poisons and venoms reveals how the boundaries between observed and imagined creatures remained fluid in early modern natural history. Rather than representing a failure of scientific observation, this inclusion reflects a worldview that understood nature as potentially containing wonders and anomalies beyond everyday experience. The dragon thus occupied an ambiguous ontological status—neither fully factual nor completely fictional within the conceptual framework of the period.

The woodcut technique itself, allowing for intricate visual representation in printed materials, played a crucial role in standardising and disseminating visual depictions of both real and mythological creatures. This technological innovation transformed how knowledge circulated, creating increasingly stable visual references for natural phenomena while simultaneously codifying visual representations of mythological beings.

The acquisition of this woodcut by the Plantin-Moretus Museum in 1876 represents another phase in its cultural evolution—from practical printing element to preserved historical artifact. This transition reflects changing attitudes toward early modern scientific materials, which came to be valued not just for their content but as evidence of evolving approaches to knowledge and representation. The dragon woodcut thus exemplifies how mythological elements in early scientific texts have been reinterpreted through changing frameworks of understanding, becoming valuable resources for examining the complex development of modern scientific thought.