LINNAEUS AND NATURAL HISTORY 1 15 



(Historia Animalium, 1549-1553), and Aldrovandi, the 

 Italian (Opera, 1599-1606). The former consisted of four 

 folio volumes, and the latter of thirteen, of ponderous size, 

 to which was added a fourteenth on plants. Jonston's works 

 were translated, and were better known in England than those 

 of Gesner and Aldrovandi. The wood -engravings in Aldro- 

 vandi's volume are coarser than those of Gesner, and are by 

 no means so lifelike. In the Institute at Bologna are pre- 

 served twenty volumes of figures of animals in color, which 

 were the originals from which the engravings were made. 

 These are said to be much superior to the reproductions. 

 The encyclopaedic nature of the writings of Gesner, Aldro- 

 vandi, and Jonston has given rise to the convenient and 

 expressive title of the encyclopaedists. 



Ray.- John Ray, the forerunner of Linnaeus, built upon 

 the foundations of Gesner and others, and raised the natural- 

 history edifice a tier higher. He greatly reduced the bulk 

 of publications on natural history, sifting from Gesner and 

 Aldrovandi their irrelevancies, and thereby giving a more 

 modern tone to scientific writings. He was the son of a 

 blacksmith, and was born in southern England in 1628. 

 The original form of the family name was Wrav. He was 



O j 



graduated at the University of Cambridge, and became a 

 fellow of Trinity College. Here he formed a friendship with 

 Francis Willughby, a young man of wealth whose tastes for 

 natural history were like his own. This association proved 

 a happy one for both parties. Ray had taken orders in the 

 Church of England, and held his university position as a 

 cleric; but, from conscientious scruples, he resigned his 

 fellowship in 1662. Thereafter he received financial assist- 

 ance from Willughby, and the two men traveled extensively 

 in Great Britain and on the Continent, with the view of inves- 

 tigating the natural history of the places that they visited. 

 On these excursions Willughby gave particular attention to 



