uwmspeccoll: The Spectacle of Nature: Conrad Gessner’s Historia animalium So far in the series
uwmspeccoll: The Spectacle of Nature: Conrad Gessner’s Historia animalium So far in the series we have covered books with animal illustrations that have a religious or emblematic quality. Today we are highlighting Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner’s Historia animalium (“History of Animals”), a five-volume set of books published in 1551-1557 that mark a dramatic shift into looking at animals in a scientific and naturalistic way. Gessner’s Historia animalium is considered the start of modern zoology in the West and it was the most widely read of all the Renaissance natural history books. Conrad Gessner (1516-1565) was a humanist, meaning he derived his knowledge of the world through books, especially texts by ancient scholars such as Aristotle and Pliny the Elder. His Historia animalium was meant to bridge the gap between ancient and medieval works with that of Renaissance science. Gessner compiled all that was known about particular animals from a variety of written sources, including folklore, myths and legends. Modern scientists would be very uncomfortable with the types of sources Gessner includes in his Historia animalium because he tried to list all known associations of animals along with physical descriptions. For example, the entry on the fox would include what a fox looked like and how it behaved in nature, but also what characteristics humans have ascribed to foxes throughout time like the notion that they are shifty and cunning.Gessner included the animal associations found in Andrea Alciato’s Emblemata. Historia animalium is broken down into categories: Volume 1: Live-bearing four-footed animals (mammals).Volume 2: Egg-laying quadrupeds (crocodiles and lizards).Volume 3: Birds.Volume 4: Fish and other aquatic animals.Volume 5: Serpents (snakes and scorpions published posthumously in 1587). Keep reading -- source link