4 Natural History in Earlier Days. [Sess. 



representatives, the tailed men, and the Land of Darkness. 

 In the fourteenth century John de Mandeville wrote a singular 

 book of travels in French, which acquired extraordinary 

 popularity, and was translated into many tongues. It consists 

 mostly of tales of imagination relating to men whose heads 

 he saw beneath their shoulders, men with a single eye or with 

 lips large enough to cover their faces whilst sleeping, the 

 weeping crocodile, the vegetable lamb, &c. One of the earliest 

 illustrated books on natural history is the curious compilation 

 entitled ' Ortus Sanctatis ' (1491), printed in black letter, and 

 containing a medley of natural history, arts, medicine, &c. 



The sixteenth century was rich in naturalists. At this 

 period Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, published his 

 illustrated ' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus ' (1533), 

 devoted to a description of the customs, superstitions, and 

 religious rites, &c., of the inhabitants of Norway and Sweden, 

 together with the natural history of these countries. But the 

 most famous naturalists of this period were Gesner and 

 Aldrovandus. Gesner, who in 1541 became professor of 

 physics and natural history at Zurich, wrote on many subjects, 

 publishing during his life no less than 72 books, and leaving 

 MS. for 1 8 others. His greatest work, the ' Historia 

 Animalium,' contains the name and description of every 

 animal then known, with many legends regarding them. 

 Ulysses Aldrovandus was professor of botany, and later of 

 natural history, at Bologna. His " Herbarium " occupied 6 

 large folio volumes. The researches of his life were embraced 

 in his magnum opus, comprised in six large quarto volumes, 

 and designed to include everything that was then known 

 about natural history. 



In the seventeenth century Eusebius Nierembergius wrote 

 an elaborate 'Historia Naturae,' published at Antwerp in 

 1635; and Dr John Johnstone also wrote a ' Natural History 

 of Quadrupeds,' printed at Amsterdam in 1657. Other 

 famous naturalists of this period were Sluper (1572), Topoell 

 (1607), and Johannes Zahl (1696). 



Among the curious creatures described by these earlier 

 naturalists, and in which they seem to have thoroughly be- 

 lieved, are pigmies and dwarfs, of which Olaus Magnus gives 

 illustrations fighting against cranes, devils, and fairies ; while 



