innovation in scientific text traditions may originate from literary texts. New forms, new text traditions, give new possibilities of thinking and, at the same time, are expression of a different style of thought. Thus the formal metamorphoses of literature also influence scientific thinking and scientific text traditions. In this article the author compares in pairs one literary text exemplar or tradition with one LSP exemplar and tries to find representatives of the metamorphoses and innovations mentioned. Adopting a historical approach, the author discusses oriental 'polythematics', the classical Greek tradition, the early novel and oberservational science, French realism and Darwin, and modern trends.