ULYSSES ALDROVANDI. 21 



ought to add, that, according to Isaac Bullart, he 

 died at the age of eighty.* 



His extraction was noble ; being descended, ac- 

 cording to his contemporary, Aubertus Miraeus, from 

 the illustrious family of the Counts of.Aldrovandi.f 

 In the dedication of one of his works to Pope Cle- 

 ment VIII. our author claims consanguinity with 

 that respected ecclesiastic, and derives their common 

 origin from the famous Lombard general, Hilde- 

 brand. His education seems to have been con- 

 ducted partly in his native city, and partly at Padua. 

 The correctness of some of his religious opinions 

 having been suspected, he travelled to Rome in the 

 year 1550, for the purpose of vindicating himself, 

 which must have been effected without difficulty ; 

 and then he availed himself of the opportunity of 

 studying th antiquities of the place, and composed 

 a treatise upon ancient statuary, which appears to 

 have been his first production, and which was pub- 

 lished in the work of his friend Lucio Mauro, on 

 Roman Antiquities.^ On this occasion he became 

 acquainted with the celebrated Rondolet, already 

 mentioned, and this distinguished Frenchman's re- 

 searches into the History of Fishes may have had 



he was born in 1527. Tn Rees' Cyclopaedia, again, a most respect- 

 able authority, the date given is 1522, and the age is stated at 

 83. On turning to the older authorities of Moreri and Bayle, 

 we find no specification given by these authors, other than tha 

 date of his decease, and nothing is said of his age. 



* Acad. des Sciences et des Arts, t. ii. p. 110. 



t De Scriptoribus Saeculi, xvi. pars 2, p. 244. 



J Rees' CyclopaeoL 



