SECT. 2] 



TO THE RENAISSANCE 



III 



more years bring us to the birth of Andreas Laurentius and of 

 Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente, the teacher of William 

 Harvey. 



The senior member of this group, Ulysses Aldrovandus, was the 

 first biologist since Aristotle to open the eggs of hens regularly during 



Fig. 3. A (viviparous) dolphin: from Rondelet's De piscibus marinis of 1554. 



their incubation period, and to describe in detail the appearances 

 which he found there. In his Ornithologia, published at Bonn in 1597, 

 he set out to describe all the known kinds of birds, discussing in 

 turn not only their zoological and physiological characteristics, but 



Fig. 4. An (ovoviviparous) shark: from Rondelet's De piscibus marints of 1554. 



also their significance as presages and for augury, their mystical 

 meaning, their use as allegories and for eating, and finally all the 

 legends respecting them, Generositas, Temperantia, Liberalitas, aquilae 

 one finds. Beginning with the eagle, he proceeds to the vulture, 

 the owl, the bat (the only viviparous bird!), the ostrich, the harpy (!), 



