ULYSSES ALDROVANDI. 23 



plausibly be urged, as it appears that, in the lan- 

 guage of the time, Natural History was included 

 under the more general title of Natural Philosophy. 

 Instances of this use of the words will occur in 

 these pages. But though this is a possible, we scarce- 

 \y consider it a very probable explanation ; because 

 there is good reason to believe that Natural Phi- 

 losophy held a more general and earlier place in the 

 curriculum of the different universities than did 

 Natural History ; and also because, however natural 

 a union or association Natural Philosophy might form 

 with Logic, a study to which our Professor, as we 

 shall find, was passionately attached, yet there is 

 no such bond or connection between it and the pur- 

 suits of Zoology. 



But be this as it may, we repeat, there is the most 

 irrefragable evidence that Aldrovandi, at an early 

 period of his life, occupied the Chair of Natural 

 History, In the title of the first volume of his 

 great work on this subject he designates him- 

 self by appellations of literary distinction somewhat 

 different from those in present use, as Philosopher, 

 and Physician of Bologna, and Professor of Natural 

 History in its university. Historiam Naturalem 

 in Gymnasia Bononiensi Profetentis. And did 

 the fact, amid the silence of the moderns, require 

 any additional confirmation, it would be found in the 

 words of, so far as we know, his oldest biographer, 

 and the only one, we have observed, who has 

 noticed the circumstance. Miraaus combines the 

 statement of the fact with a compliment conceived 



