Historical Account of Testaccological Writers. 127 



ALDROVANDUS 



followed the disposition of shells adopted by Gesner, except that 

 he inverted the order of the classes, and altogether omitted the 

 objectionable one of Anomala. His work " de Multibus Crustaceis, 

 Testaceis, et Zobphytis," is divided into four books. The figures 

 are coarse and inaccurate, and less fit for reference than those 

 of, perhaps, any other of the older writers on this science. 



COLUMNA. 



The treatise of Fabius Columna is to be considered rather as a 

 Monographia of the Purpura than as referable to shells in general ; 

 but it contains descriptions of a few rarer species, and of some 

 fossils also, which are all neatly figured in seven copper plates, 

 exclusive of the one attached to a dissertation on Glossopetrce. 



This work was re-published in 1675 by John Daniel Major, 

 M. D. whom we shall notice hereafter. 



In the same year with Columna's Treatise on the Purpura ap- 

 peared the excellent plates of 



BASIL BESLER 



(apothecary of Nuremberg), well known among the naturalists 

 of that period, particularly for his attachment to botany. These 

 plates are highly finished, and perhaps altogether superior to any 

 that had appeared before on copper relative to subjects of na- 

 tural history. Two of them only contain figures of shells, the 

 lovers of which must lament that there are no more, so elegantly 

 and correctly are they executed. There are specific descriptions 

 in Latin and German. The work has for its title " Fasciculus 

 Rarioruni," &c. and, though inconsiderable in its extent, well 

 deserves a place in the library of the curious naturalist. 



CHIOCCO, 



