472 Reviews — Old Natural History Books. 



commonplace books like those of vElian of Praeneste, a compiler 

 who lived in the third century, were much used. In these, scraps of 

 folklore, travellers' tales and fragments of misapprehended science 

 were set forth in the elegant style then affected. An edition of 

 vElian's collected works was issued by Gesner in 1556, and a good 

 edition of his Be Natura Animaliiim was brought out in 1774 under 

 the editorship of Abraham Gronovius. 



" The early Christian writers, none too conversant with natural 

 history, utilized these works, without question as to their reliability, 

 in their allegorical interpretations of Biblical texts. Hence arose 

 a series of collections, in many languages, of some fifty Christian 

 allegories, much read and quoted in the Middle Ages, known by the 

 common title of the Physiologus, or, since most of its imagery was 

 borrowed from the animal world, the Bestiary. 



"On such productions as these wei-e based the natural history 

 writings of the Middle Ages — ' dark ' indeed as regards progress 

 in scientific learning. 



" Among mediaeval European writers the following deserve 

 notice: — Albertus (Albert von Bollstadt), called Albertus 

 Magnus [1193-1280], a Dominican, and sometime Bishop of 

 Ratisbon, who, among his numerous writings, included com- 

 mentaries on Aristotle and treatises : — De Animalihis, first printed 

 in 1479, De Mineralibus, printed 1495, and Tabula tractatiiiim 

 parvorum naturalium (in which were comprised his Be Vegetabilihus 

 et Plantis), printed in 1517. 



"ViNCENTius Belovacensis, Or Vincent of Beauvais [c. 1190- 

 c. 1264], another learned Dominican, who resided at the court of 

 Louis IX of France, compiled at the instance of that king 

 a Bibliotheca Mnndi, which is not only one of the earliest of 

 encyclopedias, but the greatest of the Middle Ages, The first 

 part, entitled Speculum Naturale, written about 1250, contains 

 thirty-three books. It was first printed at Strasburg about 1473. 



" Bartholom^us (Bartholomew de Glanville), called Bartholo- 

 M^us Anglicus [fl. 1230-1250], a Minorite Friar, compiled an 

 encyclopaedia entitled : De Proprietatibus Rerum, which as a manu- 

 script was known in Italy in 1283 and in England in 1296. It 

 was first printed at Basle about 1470, and was the source of 

 common information on natural history during the Middle Ages. 



" These authors were followed after a long interval by : — • 



"Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519], who was not only a great 

 painter, but had also vast knowledge, among other subjects, of 

 anatomy, botany, and geology. He vigorously maintained that the 

 contents of the rocks were real shells, and supported the belief in 

 the changes of sea and land which this view implied. His writings 

 on these subjects were not printed from the original manuscripts till 

 1881 and 1883. 



" GiROLAMo Fracastoro [1483-1553] declared his opinion that 

 fossil shells had all belonged to animals which had lived and 

 multiplied in the places where their exuvias are now found, but he 

 was not listened to." 



