GESNER, 



BELON, SALVIANI, RONDELET, 



AND ALDROVANDI. 



Zoologists of the Sixteenth Century. 



Conrad Gesner — Account of his Life and Writings, preceded by Re- 

 marks on those of iElian, Oppian, Albertus Magnus, Paolo Gio- 

 \io, and Hieronyraus Bock — Pierre Belon — Hippolito Salviani 

 — Guillaiime Rondelet — Ulysses Aldrovandi— General Remarks 

 on their Writings, and the State of Science at the Close of the 

 Sixteenth Century. 



CONRAD GESNER. 

 From the time of Pliny to the commencement of the 

 sixteenth century, zoology, like the other sciences, 

 made little progress. The only naturalists during the 

 earlier portion of this interval at all deserving of no- 

 tice are iElian and Oppian. The former was born at 

 Praeneste in the year 1 60, and wrote in Greek a His- 

 tory of Animals, which, like that of the philosopher 

 of Comum, is disfigured by numerous errors and fa- 

 bles. The latter was a poet, a native of Cilicia, who 

 lived under the Emperor Caracalla in the begin- 

 ning of the third century. Two only of his produc- 

 tions are now extant, his Halieuticon and Cynsege- 

 ticon ; the one containing five books on fishing, the 

 other, four on hunting. These works are still occa- 

 sionally consulted, though they afford little useful 

 information, and might without any loss to science 

 be consigned to oblivion. 



