220 Britain's Heritage of Science 



The following year he travelled in Spain and Italy, and in 

 these countries he made an elaborate study of the silk- 

 worm, which doubtless led him to the study of insects in 

 general. He not only wrote a poem on the silk-worm, 

 but collected notes on the natural history of the Insecta. 

 These were published thirty years after his death under the 

 title " Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum 

 ad vivum expressis Iconibus super quingentis illustratum." 

 An English translation entitled the " Theater of Insects " 

 was published as an appendix to Topsell's " History of 

 Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents-" in 1658. 



Moffett was a many-sided man of science, a practising 

 physician, a traveller who at Copenhagen had known Tycho 

 Brahe, a courtier who took part in both diplomatic and 

 military service abroad, a poet and writer of epitaphs and 

 epigrams, a keen critic of diet, and for some time a member 

 of the House of Commons. 



A friend of Moffett's was Thomas Penny, who entered 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1550, and later became not 

 only a Prebendary of St. Paul's, but a sound botanist and 

 entomologist. Like so many men of the time, Penny 

 travelled extensively on the Continent. He visited Majorca, 

 lived in the south of France, and worked in Switzerland 

 with Gesner. He is believed to have been with Gesner 

 when he died, and he certainly helped to arrange the natu- 

 ral history specimens which the great master left. It was 

 probably through Penny that Gesner's drawings of butter- 

 flies passed into the care of Moffett, whose " Theatrum " 

 states on its title-page that it was begun by Edward 

 Wotton, Conrad Gesner, and Thomas Penny. 



The contents of books revealing new knowledge diffused 

 themselves among the ordinary public in Queen Elizabeth's 

 time far more slowly than at present. On the other hand, 

 studies were then far less specialized than they now are. 

 For example, we find Milton placing medicine in the curri- 

 culum of a liberal education, and John Evelyn studying 

 " Physics " at Padua. Lord Herbert of Cherbury insists 

 on the necessity of a gentleman being able to diagnose and 

 treat disorders, and thinks he should have a knowledge of 

 anatomy, " Whosoever considers anatomy, I believe, will 



