20 MEMOIR OF 



which is wholly inexplicable ; while the brief notices 

 we possess have been obtained by servilely copying 

 from a very few original, and not very satisfactory, 

 sources of information. It may be doubted whether, 

 under any circumstances, it be now possible to re- 

 cover much of that information which we desider- 

 ate. But with his own hand our Naturalist has rear- 

 ed his mightiest and most durable memorial; and 

 from the total want of satisfactory information in 

 any other quarter, we have been driven to his own 

 works, obscured with the dust of centuries, and 

 thence have chiefly drawn materials for the follow- 

 ing sketch. 



ULYSSES ALDRO'VANDI was born in the ancient, 

 and at that time very distinguished, city of Bologna. 

 The year of his birth seems involved in some degree 

 of uncertainty, which, except as bearing on the his- 

 tory of the last years of his existence, would be a 

 matter of no great moment. Two dates are men- 

 tioned, viz. the years 1527 and 1522; and these 

 have probably been fixed upon by calculating back- 

 wards from his supposed age at the time of his de 

 cease, which happened in the year 1605. Accord- 

 ing to the former, and now we believe the prevailing 

 belief, he attained the age of seventy-eight ; accord- 

 ing to the other, and as it appears to us more pro- 

 bable computation, he reached the age of eighty- 

 three, a good old age, and passed in circumstances 

 of more than usual interest and excitement.* We 



* According to Baron Cuvier (Eiog. Univ.) and many others, 



