CONRAD GESNER. 107 



made a journey to Venice and Augsburg, where he 

 enjoyed some valuable opportunities of consulting 

 rare works and manuscripts. The same year, he 

 commenced the publication of his famous Bibliotheca 

 Universalis, which contains a catalogue of all the 

 works then known, whether extant or lost. Several 

 other fruits of his industry appeared successively be- 

 tween this period and the year 1555, when his merits 

 induced the magistrates of Zurich to appoint him 

 professor of natural history. The Emperor Ferdi- 

 nand I., to whom he dedicated one of his works, the 

 History of Fishes, rewarded him with various marks 

 of his esteem. These, however, he did not long en- 

 joy, as he fell a victim to a pestilential disease 

 which, commencing at Basil in the spring of 1564, 

 afterwards broke out in his native city with in- 

 creased violence. When attacked by this fatal 

 malady he betook himself to his cabinet, for the 

 purpose of arranging his papers, and in this occu- 

 pation died on the 13th December 1565, at the age 

 of 49 years and a few months ; leaving a widow who 

 had participated in his adversity and prosperity, 

 having been married by him when he acted as gram- 

 mar-teacher at Zurich. He bequeathed his library 

 and manuscripts to Caspar Wolf, his pupil, with in- 

 junctions to print all that could be rendered fit for the 

 public eye. His principal work is the Historia Natu- 

 ralis Animalium, chiefly composed of extracts from 

 Aristotle, ^lian, and Pliny, without order or dis- 

 crimination, but intermixed with numerous original 

 observations, and illustrated by rude engravings. It 

 consists of five books, and forms four folio volumes. 

 There is an English translation by Topsell of part of 

 it under the name of The History of four-footed 



