GESNER oder GESSNER, Conrad

Gessner (1516-1565), in his Historia Animalium, attempted to bring together all that was known about the animal kingdom in his day. The present volume on fish and aquatic animals is a part of his encyclopaedia of plants and animals, the first systematic treatise of the Renaissance. The animals are described in alphabetical order. The Swiss author wrote several texts with illustrations on the fishes of Venice, England, and Germany, which he himself had observed or about which his friends had sent him information. He inserted articles and illustrations by Belon (1551), Rondelet (1554) and Salviani (1554-1558) in his texts. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Gessner was the chief authority on all vertebrate animals. In his preface to the readers of Liber IIII he makes the general statement that very few illustrations are not realistic; with the exception of the fabulous Equus neptuni from Belon's work, and a number of illustrations taken by Olaus Magnus (1555) (Gmelig-Nijboer, 1977). The terrifying drawings of whales of Olaus Magnus, like Balaena erecta (page 138) and Cetis diversis (page 248), are mentioned by Gessner as examples of seamen's fantasy stories. Despite this, the inclusion of these drawings was used by some later authors of textbooks on the history of science to perpetuate the myth that Gessner was an ardent believer in fabulous animals. Some marginal dust-soiling and occasional marginal spotting. Provenance: inscriptions on title: Christophero Arnoldo Artini Med. Doctor, me sibi & gratae posteriati comparavit; ...emit D. Johann Macholt: other early illegible inscriptions.